A worker who accuses the Peter McVerry Trust of unfair dismissal was on a final written warning for absenteeism when bosses concluded she had “gone to bed over two hours early” during her overnight shift at a homeless hostel, the charity’s solicitor has told a tribunal.
Olubunmi Soledolu, a project worker at an emergency accommodation hub for families with children experiencing homelessness, was sacked in March 2025 after being disciplined for the second time in 12 months, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has heard.
Soledolu told a hearing on Tuesday that she went upstairs at Hazel House in Glasnevin, Dublin 11, to “rest” after complaining of back pain towards the end of a 12-hour shift. She insisted she was “still awake” and reachable by phone.
The charity has said she was meant to be on duty in the common areas of the facility until midnight, but was last seen on CCTV in the facility at about 10pm and didn’t re-emerge until the following morning.
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Soledolu said in evidence that she was “loyal staff” of the McVerry Trust, “always available to the managers to cover shifts” and did not call in sick unless she was “really, really sick”.
On January 28th, 2025, Soledolu was due to sleep over at the facility between shifts in an upstairs office, which was converted to a staff bedroom; this was submitted by the charity’s solicitor, Feidhlim Mac Róibín of McInnes Dunne Murphy.
The lawyer said it came to the trust’s attention that the complainant “had actually gone to bed early – more than two hours early – without notifying on-call, without permission, without following the proper process.”
Soledolu said she and the other project worker on shift were “cleaning all day” in preparation for an inspection the following morning.
Soledolu said she was suffering back pain and asked her co-worker on the shift whether it was “okay if I went upstairs”. “She had agreed I should go and have a rest because of my back,” Soledolu said.
“She said she’d be fine. She was reviewing the CCTV; nothing was going on, all the residents were asleep. That’s why I believe she wasn’t vulnerable,” added the complainant.
“I didn’t go to bed. I was still awake. I was in the office, I was with a phone,” said Soledolu.
Asked why she did not contact management and say she was unwell, Soledolu said that in her experience, the charity’s on-call manager would not be able to replace her before her shift ended.
Michael Nkeng, the charity’s head of services for north Dublin, said in his evidence that cover could have been in place within 20 minutes.
The witness, who was one of two managers assigned to decide on whether to discipline Soledolu, said the complainant breached protocol and left her colleague working “vulnerable”.
“She left and went to the staff bedroom and did not go back on the floor,” said Nkeng.
He said Soledolu told him about her back pain at the disciplinary hearing and when he asked her why she didn’t look for cover, she told him there was “a culture here where you don’t call”.
He called that an immediate red flag. “She has previously been on a final written warning and she didn’t think she’d done anything wrong,” said Nkeng.
He said there had been “no learning” on the part of Soledolu following the last disciplinary sanction and that he considered it “fair enough to dismiss her” on that basis.
The charity’s investigation also found that an 11.30pm health and safety check the staff were meant to perform had not been completed, despite Soledolu’s signature having been written into a log stating that it had been.
Soledolu said her colleague was responsible for assigning duties on the evening and had not asked her to perform the 11.30pm safety check. She said her colleague had “signed my signature” in the log and that it had been “forged”.
The other worker received a final written warning in relation to that, said Mac Róibín.
Mac Róibín said a 12-month final written warning issued on January 30th, 2024, was never appealed and was still live on Soledolu’s personnel file at the time of the incident.
That warning was on the basis of a finding that she was “absent from shift for five hours” on a date in November 2023. Soledolu said she couldn’t recall whether she had tried to appeal but said she didn’t agree with those findings.
Adjudicator Monica Brennan has adjourned the matter pending receipt of a submission in writing from the complainant setting out details of her efforts to find new work following her dismissal.
