An explosives and blasting firm’s engineer who was investigated for “excessive use” of a company fuel card told his bosses he left his work jeep running all weekend, a tribunal has heard.
Thomas Giles failed in a case at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) challenging his sacking from Kemek Ltd for gross misconduct.
The company, which traded for 40 years as Irish Industrial Explosives before a 2023 corporate rebrand, said it had “no alternative” except to sack Giles.
Giles was a technical service engineer on the road for the Enfield, Co Meath, firm, which specialises in the deployment of explosives in the quarrying and construction sectors.
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He had been issued with a leased Toyota Land Cruiser as a company vehicle – along with a fuel card – but began to face questions on fuel usage starting in 2022.
Giles was confronted with the figures on his fuel usage during investigation meetings in March 2024 setting out that he was using more twice as much fuel as his colleagues, said Zoe O’Sullivan, for the company.
Giles was also shown an email from Circle K stating that the service station group had CCTV footage showing “vehicles other than the company vehicle” and “canisters” being filled by Giles, O’Sullivan told the WRC hearing.
At the meeting Giles replied that he was “unhappy” with his employer and said he was “running his vehicle all weekend”.
The human resources manager chairing the meeting looked for clarity on what he meant by “all weekend” and queried whether he was “turning it off at night and restarting it in the morning”, it was submitted.
Giles replied he “ran it the entire time”, the tribunal was told.
He then told the investigation meeting he had also fuelled up other vehicles when his company car was out of action, citing “battery issues”.
In his evidence to the WRC, Giles told the tribunal the “crux” of the matter was that after coming home one night after “another 60-hour week” he found that his Toyota Land Cruiser had a flat battery.
He jump-started the vehicle and “let it run to charge up the battery”, he said in his evidence to the WRC.
Then he then thought: “They don’t care about how many hours I’m doing. Why should I care about how much fuel is used?” he said.
He then “walked away and just left the jeep running”, he told the WRC hearing.
He said he had worked “unremunerated overtime” worth €200,000 at Kemek.
A separate disciplinary panel decided Giles’ actions amounted to gross misconduct for abuse of a company vehicle, excessive use of the fuel card and excessive fuel consumption.
He was dismissed on April 5th, 2024, after five years in the job.
Giles told the WRC he found it hard to find work after being dismissed, with prospective employers going “cold” after “successful initial contact and interviews”.
He claimed he was being “blacklisted” and said he fell into “significant debt” while unemployed. He told the WRC he estimated he would be at a loss of €500,000 over the course of his career.
Giles, who represented himself, said in a legal submission: “There are many, many excellent people at Kemek/Irish Industrial Explosives, but sometimes there are entrenched opinions and unsafe working practices and the only way to solve this is to put something on the record like this today or levy the maximum fine.”
Denying his complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, O’Sullivan said Giles was dismissed after a “thorough process” and was afforded “maximum fairness”.
WRC adjudication officer Gaye Cunningham ruled Giles’ complaint “not well founded” and upheld his dismissal.
