A FORMER operator of a 50-tonne quarry excavator who was fired after it was claimed he was drunk while operating the machine has been awarded €20,000 compensation by an Employment Appeals Tribunal.
The tribunal found that Oliver Muldoon of Mullaghfin, Duleek, Co Meath was unfairly dismissed by P Sheils Plant Hire Limited, Garballagh, Duleek on April 15th last.
The plant hire company had fired Mr Muldoon for gross misconduct, but the tribunal said the company had accepted third-party information that he had been drunk while in charge of the machinery.
In a determination that has just become available, the tribunal found that no effort had been made by the company’s owner to “to satisfy himself that gross misconduct had been committed” and the company had “failed to follow a fair procedure in conducting an investigation”.
Mr Muldoon denied that he was drunk on the machine. He admitted that he may have had a few drinks on the previous night but he had not drunk that much.
He also denied that he was aggressive while on the machine and that after a driver had got him off the machine that he had gone to a pub.
The owner of the company said he had asked for the opinion of the people reporting the incident, and they had said that Mr Muldoon was drunk.
“His drunkenness had become a health and safety issue, which could not be allowed,” the tribunal was told.
He had not been present in the quarry or witnessed the condition of Mr Muldoon, nor had he been breathalysed or examined. He relied on the word of the quarry manager and a driver that Mr Muldoon was intoxicated and the fact that he had been warned about drinking before.
Mr Muldoon had to be dismissed “because there was no point in taking action after someone was killed”, the tribunal was told.