A stone-cutter who was fired after he had a row with his employer's son-in-law has been awarded €34,500 compensation by an Employment Appeals Tribunal.
The tribunal found that Robert Casey, Moatview Gardens, Coolock, Dublin, was unfairly dismissed by James Gogarty, Donore Road, Donore, Co Meath, who runs a stone-cutting and sculpting business. It found the dismissal was "devoid of any fair procedure or natural justice".
The tribunal was told Mr Gogarty employed 14 people, six of whom were family workers. In October 2005, Mr Gogarty was approached by his son-in-law who was agitated and annoyed, saying that Mr Casey has verbally abused him and told him he was "lucky his head wasn't knocked off".
When he spoke to Mr Casey about the incident, which centred on a piece of stone that had been cut upside down, Mr Gogarty claimed he had been very aggressive and told him he was not accepting someone telling him what to do.
Mr Gogarty told the tribunal he was faced with a choice. He knew his son-in-law would not remain with him if Mr Casey continued to be employed. After thinking about it for a couple of days, he decided to dismiss Mr Casey.
The son-in-law told the tribunal he made a written complaint about Mr Casey the same day, that he had apologised and they shook hands. Mr Casey denied he had threatened the son-in-law.
He had apologised at Mr Gogarty's request after he said the two men should put the incident behind them. However, a week later he was dismissed. No procedures had been followed.
When Mr Casey applied for another job, the company involved had sought a reference. Mr Gogarty told the company about the incident and said he had let him go because he "feared for the safety of his son-in-law".
The tribunal found the reference had had a "detrimental" effect on Mr Casey's employment prospects and said it could be some time before he got another job.