A WEST Cork fish farm manager who stripped off his safety gear and jumped into Bantry Bay to retrieve a drifting boat has lost an unfair dismissal case against his former employer.

BY DAVID FORSYTHE

However, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ordered MOWI Ireland to pay Giorgio Cobau €6,440 after separately finding that he was entitled to an unpaid production bonus.

Mr Cobau was the marine site manager at the company’s Gerahies fish farm. He was dismissed in April 2025 following a safety incident at sea three months earlier.

The incident happened on January 6th when a rigid inflatable boat became detached from a moored workboat and began drifting away.

Mr Cobau removed his lifejacket, survival suit and outer clothing before entering the water and swimming towards the boat.

He told the WRC he was a qualified diver and very capable swimmer and believed he could retrieve it safely. He said the water was relatively shallow and disputed that he had needed to be rescued.

The skipper of the workboat gave a very different account.

He said there was a strong north-westerly wind blowing across Bantry Bay and that the water was cold and exposed.

He told the hearing that Mr Cobau stripped to his underwear and entered the sea without warning.

After seeing him stop swimming and ‘bobbing’ in the water, the skipper turned the workboat around to recover him.

The vessel struck a rock during the manoeuvre but was not holed.

The skipper also claimed Mr Cobau asked him not to tell anyone about the incident and later doubled over with cramps in the car.

He said he advised him to go to hospital, but Mr Cobau refused.

Mr Cobau did not file an incident report. He maintained that nobody had been injured, nothing had been lost and there was no continuing risk.

MOWI later dismissed him for gross misconduct, saying he had endangered himself and another employee, breached safety procedures and failed to report the incident.

Mr Cobau claimed the dismissal was linked to concerns he had raised about understaffing and safety at Gerahies.

He said staffing had fallen from seven or eight workers to as few as two and argued that his complaints amounted to protected disclosures.

The WRC found no convincing evidence that he had raised those concerns before disciplinary proceedings began.

Adjudicating officer Thomas O’Driscoll said Mr Cobau’s decision to enter the sea was a serious breach of safety rules, particularly as he had completed safety training the previous day.

His failure to report the incident and his lack of engagement with the investigation and disciplinary process were also taken into account.

The adjudicator found that MOWI had followed a fair process and that dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses available to the company.

Mr Cobau’s unfair dismissal and protected disclosure claims were rejected. He was successful, however, in his claim for an unpaid ‘generation’ bonus linked to the performance of the fish farm.

The WRC found he had met two of the bonus scheme’s three targets and was entitled to a payment worth 14% of his salary.

MOWI was ordered to pay him €6,440, less any lawful deductions.