Ukrainian truck driver who told boss to 'f**k off' taking case for unfair dismissal
Ruslan Rybak got out of his lorry in the middle of a busy roundabout to verbally abuse a motorist who was collecting his daughter from school, the Workplace Relations Commission has heard
A Ukrainian truck driver who allegedly got out of his vehicle in the middle of a busy roundabout to verbally abuse a motorist has taken a case for unfair dismissal against his former employer.
Ruslan Rybak, who is now serving in the Ukrainian military, worked for a haulage business in Lusk owned by Noel Hughes until July 1, 2020.
He filed a total of 13 complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) arising from his employment, including unfair dismissal, failure to grant rest periods, and failure to keep statutory employment records.
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During an adjudication hearing earlier today, Noel Hughes claimed that Mr Rybak had been involved in a number of incidents involving verbal abuse, culminating in an incident on July 1, 2020 that resulted in the termination of his employment.
On that date, Mr Hughes said Mr Rybak was in “terrible bad form” and there was a complaint about “his carry-on and manner” at a client’s premises in Dublin. The client told Mr Hughes that Mr Rybak was “barred” from the premises as this was the third such incident.
When Mr Rybak returned to the yard, Mr Hughes confronted him.
“I had words with Ruslan and, when we had words, one word followed another and it got a bit heated,” he told the adjudication hearing. “Ruslan turned around to me and said: ‘Shove your job up your arse.’”
Questioned by WRC adjudicator Michael McEntee, Mr Hughes corrected himself and said: “Sorry, my apologies, he said ‘F**k off.’”
“He charged out of the office door and [was] gone, and that’s not the first time that Ruslan done that on us,” he added.
Mr Hughes contended that Mr Rybak had left his employment of his own accord and disputed that any dismissal had occurred.
However, Mr Rybak told the hearing that they had taken his keys when he returned to the yard on July 1 and told him that he was fired.
He returned to Ukraine on July 9, and denied claims by Mr Hughes that he had been waiting for a “mercy flight” to his home country before his employment with the haulage business ended.
Mr Rybak told the hearing that he didn’t know what a “mercy flight” was, and he booked plane tickets with Ryanair after he was dismissed on July 1. “I’m not the president, so I don’t have a special plane all to myself,” he added.
Mr Hughes claimed that there had been a series of incidents involving Mr Rybak prior to the end of his employment, including one that allegedly occurred on the Enfield roundabout in 2019.
“He got into an argument with a man in a car with a 14-year-old child,” he said. “He stopped in the middle of the roundabout… jumped out of the lorry, started to abuse the man in the car, and the young girl in the car was bawling crying.
“Now, that man rang me and I had to plead with him to prevent him from going to the police. That was another episode,” he added.
Mr Rybak recalled the incident but questioned “if it was so bad”, why nobody had called the police.
Mr Rybak’s legal representative, Marius Marosan, said he would expect any employer to have some record of such gross misconduct and an alleged “track record” of having a short temper.
He said there were no disciplinary records, and the company had no record to show that Mr Rybak had left the haulage firm of his own will. Despite acknowledging that he was a good worker, they had not written to him to ask whether he would be returning.
Concluding the hearing, Mr McEntee asked Mr Hughes to provide a number of records, including payslips, which he would examine in the context of complaints filed by Mr Rybak.
He indicated that he expects to be in a position to issue a decision on the case early next month.
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