A mechanic has been awarded €11,500 in compensation after losing his job as a mechanic after 14 years following claims he was dismissed because he could not be depended on to turn up to work on time.

The man in question had been employed as a mechanic at a garage from 1 July 2003 to 18 March 2017, with weekly working hours of 24 hours and a weekly pay of €240.

In a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the man said that his employer had failed to provide him with a written statement of his terms and conditions of employment in accordance with the provisions of the 1994 Act.

He also claimed the employer terminated his employment without notice or pay-in-lieu of notice in accordance with the provisions of the 1973 Act.

Futhermore, he claimed that his employer had not afforded him his rights and entitlements in relation to annual leave and public holidays.

In relation to his dismissal, he said he received a call on 18 March 2017 from the proprietor who told him he was being let go as there was no work for him.

The employer said the mechanic was dismissed because they could not depend on him to attend work at normal times and to work normal hours, despite him being repeatedly spoken to about his absences and repeatedly warned that this could not continue and that the consequences of it would be the loss of his job.

The proprietor said the complainant was a “super mechanic, a very good employee, who worked faster than the other employees and his productivity was very good, but the difficulty with him was getting him to work full days”.

However, he said the mechanic didn’t work full days regularly, be it starting late, taking extended lunch breaks and missing time.

After the employer presented his case, the mechanic denied that he was regularly missing from work. He said that he may have been missing occasionally, but that it was equally true that he often stayed on late after his finishing time without any extra pay.

He denied that he had been repeatedly informed by the proprietor about missing time from work and that his job was at risk for that reason.

He also claimed that he had never been subject to any disciplinary action of any sort during his employment. He was never given a verbal warning, a written warning, a final written warning, a suspension or any form of disciplinary action, he said.

Having been awarded compensation and redress for breaches of his rights under the Terms of Employment (information) Act 1994, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the complainant received a total of €6,000.

With the sum of €5,500 already paid to the mechanic, he received the total amount of €11,500.

If you have been the victim of such allegations, please visit our Personal Injury Claims page.

Source: The Journal