Quarry boss claims salary was ‘unilaterally’ cut by 60%

The managing director of a quarrying business is seeking High Court orders aimed at reversing the company’s alleged unilateral and unlawful decision to cut his salary from €236,000 to €94,600. 

 

Denis Flynn is a 50 per cent shareholder and managing director of Hillstreet Quarries Ltd (HSQ), whose business interests include the operation of a quarry on the border between Roscommon and Sligo, near the village of Arigna. 

 

He claims the company, whose other shareholder is his cousin, well-known businessman Joseph Murphy, unilaterally reduced his salary last July and its actions against him are unlawful. 

 

He claims the reduction came about as part of an alleged campaign of bullying and harassment against him by Mr Murphy and the board of HSQ. 

 

The firm was set up in 1993 by Mr Flynn and Mr Murphy, the court heard. 

 

Mr Flynn claims Mr Murphy has a personal animus against him and is trying to force the sale of the company. He also claims HSQ’s directors and Mr Murphy’s actions are humiliating and damaging him. 

 

Sick leave 

Mr Flynn, currently on sick leave, claims the company has limited his sick pay and had demanded the return of the company jeep as well as monies paid to him after his salary was increased in May 2020. 

 

In his action, Mr Flynn, of Cnoc Na Sí, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co Leitrim seeks injunctions restoring his salary to the level it was before the reduction allegedly imposed by the company last July and directing HSQ to pay sick pay based on his pre-reduction salary until he is certified as being medically fit to return to work. 

 

Represented by Alex White SC, Mr Flynn claims that, following the economic crash in 2008, he agreed on several occasions to his salary being reduced. He was earning €127,000 per year until 2009 and claims his salary was kept below that figure until it was increased in 2020 to reflect his position and role within the company. The increase was “long overdue”, he claims. 

 

The court heard the board objected to the increase and claimed it was not subject of a board resolution. 

 

Mr Flynn claims salary increases/decreases of other persons working for HSQ were never the subject of board approval and no complaint was made over his decision to increase the salaries of other board directors. No complaint or resolution was ever passed or made by the board about his decisions to reduce his salary between 2010 and 2020, he added. 

 

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Senan Allen, on an ex-parte basis, granted permission to serve short notice of the injunction proceedings on the company and returned the matter to next month. 

 

The Irish Times