A POSTAL worker terrified colleagues at the Athlone mail centre when he threatened to bring a gun to work and shoot them all, an Employment Appeals Tribunal has been told.
The threats were made on May 1st, 2007, two weeks after a mass shooting in the US in which a gunman massacred 32 people and wounded 20 in the Virginia Tech college before shooting himself.
Robert Myers, Auburn Heights, Athlone, Co Westmeath, took a case to the tribunal claiming he had been unfairly dismissed by An Post.
The tribunal said the threats incident alone would have justified a dismissal but it was allied to Mr Myers’s disciplinary record which showed that over four years, he had received nine verbal warnings and three written warnings.
These involved a variety of disciplinary offences such as unsatisfactory work performance, poor conduct and attendance issues.
“In actual fact, on the date of the incident the claimant was on a final written warning,” the determination says.
In its determination yesterday the three-member tribunal said An Post was “entitled and indeed justified” in dismissing Mr Myers.
When complaints about the incident were put to Mr Myers by the company, he initially denied saying that he would kill anyone but later accepted that he had mentioned “taking a gun into the building and killing people”.
He insisted the matter “was a joke and had been taken out of context”.
It was not meant to be taken seriously.
The determination said Mr Myers was one of 29 people working in An Post’s video coding rooms when he instigated a conversation with a colleague “suggesting he was going to bring a gun to work” and shoot all his workmates. “Graphic details were given in respect of the methods of how some of his colleagues would die and towards the end of the conversation, the claimant inquired as to the number of employees working in the building as he wanted to ensure that he had enough ammunition.”
The tribunal said it was clear that it was not a brief conversation but continued over 20 to 30 minutes.
Mr Myers was taken seriously by most of his colleagues, all but one of whom were women.
“Evidence was also given that he was asked to refrain from the conversation on several occasions by some of his colleagues, including the male co-worker, but did not do so.
“Evidence was given by several of his co-workers who said that they were extremely frightened by the conversation, took the threat seriously and feared for their safety.” The tribunal said that while one or two colleagues put the conversation down to attention-seeking by Mr Myers, it was clear from the evidence that the majority of the workers were “frightened and upset” by the conversation.
“It must also be remembered that at the time the conversation took place, the shooting of colleagues by a student in a Virginia Technical College in America had just occurred and was fresh in everyone’s mind,” the determination said.
“Added to this was the fact that the claimant’s personality, details of which were given by co-workers at the hearing, lent credence to his claims.”
The tribunal said the only course of action open to An Post acting as “a prudent and reasonable employer” was to dismiss Mr Myers as it had “a specific duty of care” to employees that included providing a safe place of work.