An engineer who said he was falsely accused of hiding information about how to disable wind turbines at a wind farm in Co Donegal has been awarded more than €30,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal.
Having considered his uncontested evidence, an Employment Appeals Tribunal unanimously agreed the dismissal of Thomas O'Brien of Glenleary, Ramelton, Co Donegal was unfair.
His former employers, Vestas-Celtic Wind Technology, with addresses in England and Scotland, did not turn up at a Letterkenny hearing though the tribunal said it was satisfied the company was properly notified it was to take place.
A mechanical engineer, Mr O'Brien told the tribunal he began working with the company in February 1997, servicing and maintaining up to a 100 windmills in the northwest with three other colleagues.
There were alarm mechanisms on the windmills to alert the team to possible "defaults".
False alarms were common during the winter. However, genuine and more serious alarms did occur and were more identifiable than the frequent false alarms.
In March 2005 he was contacted by his bosses and accused of hiding information about the disabling of certain turbines. He told the tribunal the accusation was false.
He was summoned to a meeting in Warrington a month later. He received no written notice about it or any information about what it was to be about - and was dismissed for what he understood to be his alleged gross misconduct.
In its determination yesterday, the tribunal found Mr O'Brien had been denied natural justice in the way his dismissal was handled. It said the company "failed to involve him in any meaningful investigation into the alleged incident that led to his dismissal".