Applegreen manager sacked after ‘ghost employee’ probe found Polish worker got no wages for 16 weeks

The Workplace Relations Commission

Stephen Bourke

An Applegreen service station manager was sacked after a suspected “ghost employee” on its systems turned out to be a real Polish woman with limited English who had had spent four months working without wages, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has heard.

A barrister acting for the chain said that the manager of its service station at Ashbourne, Co Meath, had effectively inflated profits for 2021 by not registering the worker for payroll – and secured himself an increased bonus worth €2,000 gross as a result.