This article is from page 8 of the 2008-09-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
AN ENNIS worker who, it was claimed, tried to under cut the com- pany which employed him has been awarded a total of €4,600 for unfair dismissal by the Employment Ap- peals Tribunal.
Thomas Moroney, of 75 Inis Ealga, Shannon took a case against I-Homes Limited, Quin Road, Business Park, Ennis after they fired him, claiming he was dong nixers for their custom- ers, undercutting them to get the business in the process
Moroney denied the claims and
said that he had never been given a chance to properly defend himself against the allegations before being dismissed on October 9 2007.
The tribunal heard evidence from the company, which carries out in- Stallation of home automation, that they had trained Moroney.
The company became aware that Moroney was carrying out private work in what they said was direct competition.
He was given two verbal warnings and in October 2007 as a result of a tracking system which was installed on all company vehicles, Moroney’s
jeep was tracked to a number of lo- cations which placed him in areas where he should not have been dur- ing the course of his work. He was dismissed for gross misconduct on October 9, 2007.
Moroney said in evidence that he had never been made aware of the seriousness of the accusations and had variously been told he should not have the company vehicle in sight if he was doing work outside his com- pany business and that is was not ac- ceptable to use the jeep while work- ing on Sundays.
He denied ever working in competi-
tion with his employers and said that he was not informed of his right to have representation at the final meet- ing at which he was dismissed.
The tribunal found that Moroney had not been made aware of the grav- ity of the accusations and given a fair chance to explain himself and that a witness who claimed he had heard him underprice jobs had never raised this with the company until two days before the hearing.
The tribunal made an award of €3,000 for unfair dismissal and €1,600, two weeks wages under minimum notice regulations.