€4,100 for man dismissed after exploding banger hurt colleagues

The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that a worker who was involved in an incident where a banger exploded at work injuring a number of colleagues has been unfairly dismissed.

In the ruling, the EAT has stated that Speedking Couriers Ltd, trading as Fastway Couriers (Midlands) pay €4,162 to Justin Leigh after finding that he was unfairly dismissed in 2013.

Mr Leigh is to receive €1,500 for the unfair dismissal and a further €2,663 in lieu of four weeks minimum notice.

The EAT in its report states that it was common case between the parties in the proceedings that Mr Leigh was involved in a serious incident where a banger was exploded in the workplace causing injury to a number of employees.

The EAT stated that Mr Leigh admitted responsibility from the outset but claimed that there had been nothing wilful in his actions.

Mr Leigh had not appreciated the potential serious consequences of his actions which he appeared to categorise as “tom foolery” which was, he alleged, an established culture in the workplace.

SIPTU represented Mr Leigh at the hearing in Portlaoise and it its ruling, the EAT found that the investigative and disciplinary processes in the case “were fundamentally flawed to the extent that the tribunal considers and holds the claimant to have been unfairly dismissed”.

The Tribunal states that it cannot disregard these fundamental flaws particularly in a situation where the firm had the advices of an external consultant in employment procedures available to it.

The Tribunal stated that it believed that the exclusion of Mr Leigh’s union representative and the denial to him of his representative of choice during the process was unfair and a fundamental breach of his contractual entitlements.