A Dublin café manager whose employer allegedly mocked her accent by repeatedly calling her “Sofía Vergara” has been awarded more than €7,500 by the Workplace Relations Commission after a tribunal found she had been subjected to discriminatory harassment and unfair workplace treatment.
The case was taken by former café manager Vedrana Miskic against Aspenvale Ltd, which operates The Cake Café on Pleasants Place, Dublin 8, following a breakdown in relations shortly after the business changed ownership in 2025.
In a detailed ruling published by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), adjudication officer Catherine Byrne upheld two separate complaints against the café operator and strongly criticised the conduct and evidence of owner Giulio Takacs.
Ms Miskic told the tribunal she began working at the café shortly after Takacs took over the business around April 2025.
According to her evidence, the new owner quickly formed the view that many of the existing employees were not “suitable” for the business, though she disagreed with that assessment.
She told the WRC staff increasingly felt they were being “monitored” and that Takacs was “making life uncomfortable” for workers following the takeover.
Just three days after she began working there, another female employee resigned from the café.
Ms Miskic told the tribunal the worker had cited alleged “racist and sexist remarks made by Mr Takacs” as well as concerns over changes to payroll arrangements.
The hearing was told that during Ms Miskic’s employment, Takacs mocked her accent by referring to her as “Sofía Vergara”, referencing the Colombian-born actress best known for Modern Family.
Takacs denied making racist comments or discriminatory remarks relating to LGBT people or black people, according to the WRC ruling.
However, adjudication officer Byrne noted in her findings that while there was insufficient evidence to support allegations that Takacs had made comments about not wanting to hire black employees, he also “did not deny” referring to Ms Miskic as Sofía Vergara.
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The tribunal heard further tensions arose in May 2025 after the employee who had resigned returned to the café upset about unpaid wages.
Ms Miskic said the former worker arrived at the premises on 17 May 2025 seeking answers about why she had not been paid.
At the time, Takacs had reportedly changed the café’s payroll system to monthly payments.
Ms Miskic told the tribunal she herself was still being paid fortnightly and had struggled to explain to the former employee why she had not received wages “at the same time as everyone else”.
According to Ms Miskic, Takacs became angry and accused her of failing to explain the payroll situation to the former worker.
Takacs gave a different version of events, claiming Ms Miskic raised her voice during the confrontation and told him: “If you want me to leave, I’ll leave.”
He said she then called in sick the following day.
Takacs further told the tribunal that the pair met again on 21 May 2025, when he alleged Ms Miskic threatened to take a case to the WRC.
He argued that she had effectively resigned verbally on 17 May. Alternatively, he claimed the relationship between them had deteriorated so badly that he was entitled to dismiss her by 21 May.
Ms Miskic disputed that account and maintained she had instead been dismissed because she objected to discriminatory conduct in the workplace.
In her decision, adjudication officer Byrne sided heavily with the complainant’s evidence.
“I found the complainant to be a credible witness, and I regret to say that I found that Mr Takacs was less so,” she wrote.
She added that Ms Miskic had worked hard while attempting to manage what she described as Takacs’ “chaotic approach to the business and his cavalier attitude.”
The adjudication officer also raised concerns about documentation submitted by Takacs during proceedings, specifically referencing the use of artificial intelligence in materials presented to the tribunal.
Ms Byrne wrote that Takacs’ “use of AI” in documents filed with the WRC caused her to suspect Ms Miskic may have been correct in alleging that WhatsApp messages and correspondence had potentially been manipulated.
“The complainant was correct when she said that he manipulated WhatsApp messages and correspondence to delete comments that he didn’t like,” Byrne wrote.
The WRC ultimately found that Ms Miskic had in fact been dismissed on 21 May 2025, noting Takacs had issued her with a termination letter giving one month’s notice from that date.
While Byrne ruled there was not enough evidence to conclude the dismissal occurred because Ms Miskic opposed discrimination, she did find the dismissal itself had been “unreasonable and unfair.”
However, that specific discrimination-related dismissal complaint was not upheld.
The tribunal did uphold Ms Miskic’s complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998, concluding that the repeated “Sofía Vergara” comments constituted discriminatory harassment connected to her accent.
“It is my view that the complainant has established that, on the basic facts, her accent was ridiculed and that, on this basis, she was harassed,” Byrne wrote.
She found the comments amounted to “belittling of the complainant’s accent” by comparing her to the actress.
As compensation for the discriminatory harassment finding, Ms Miskic was awarded four weeks’ wages totalling €3,762.
A second breach was also upheld after Byrne ruled Aspenvale Ltd failed to provide Ms Miskic with a written statement outlining the terms and conditions of her employment within five days of starting work, as required under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994.
For that breach, she was awarded a further four weeks’ wages.
In total, the WRC ordered Aspenvale Ltd to pay €7,524 to Ms Miskic.
