Two former employees of a waste collection firm have been awarded a combined €23,052 after it was found they were unfairly dismissed on Christmas Eve.
An Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) found Oxigen Environmental had unfairly dismissed two bin lorry workers, lorry driver, Nicholas Coady and helper, Austin Power.
Mr Power had a gross salary of €19,200 while Mr Coady’s salary was €517.50 per week or €26,910 per annum.
The tribunal has awarded them a combined €23,052.
The company was also criticised for hiring a private investigator to spy on the workers who were suspected of collecting their own household waste for free.
The two were sacked on Christmas Eve 2012 for gross misconduct after the private investigator spotted the two lifting their waste for free.
The private investigator followed the two during the five separate days in November and December 2012 on a route in Co Waterford and took a video of them “lifting waste” from their homes even though they were not customers of the firm.
However, in its determination, the EAT stated that rather than spending monies on a private investigator Oxigen could have ensured the employees were unequivocally informed that the practice of lifting waste for free “was to discontinue and that the consequence of continuance would be the dismissal of employee in question”.
The private investigator was hired after Oxigen’s Operations Manager, referred to as BC, received a call that Mr Power had injured his shoulder on November 12th and travelled out to see how he was on the route.
However, on arriving there, BC noticed that Mr Coady and Mr Power were collecting waste from their own homes even though they were not customers of the firm.
The video taken by the private investigator was shown to the tribunal.
During the two day hearing into the two cases in Waterford, BC gave evidence that a 25 per cent discounted waste collection was available to employees and this was included in a company memo dated October 25th 2012.
In their evidence, Mr Power and Mr Coady named other Oxigen employees, including BC, who had their waste lifted for free.
Mr Power and Mr Coady said the Oxigen employee who trained them in told them that they could collect his waste for free as it was a perk of the job.
In its determination, the EAT found it was custom and practice for employees to dispose of their waste to company trucks free of charge.
The EAT found Oxigen was entitled to disavow this practice and provided that the employees were unequivocally informed of this, the firm was entitled thereafter to discipline those employees who continued the practice.
The EAT also found the two workers may not have been informed at all, but at least were not unequivocally informed that the practice was to discontinue.
The EAT found a lesser sanction than dismissal would have sufficed in the circumstances.
In finding in favour of the two former employees, the EAT set aside the recommendation of the Rights Commissioner that the dismissal of the two men was not unfair.
In the case, the EAT awarded Mr Coady €13,452 and Mr Power €9,600.