An appeal panel's findings in the case of ATGWU official Mick O'Reilly, who returns to work next week, are embarrassing for the union's leadership, reports Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent
ATGWU official Mick O'Reilly will do something next Monday he hasn't done for 21 months - go to work.
He returns to the union knowing that some of the most serious and high-profile charges against him have been dismissed.
Those charges led to Mr O'Reilly's suspension in June 2001, and subsequent dismissal, as the union's most senior official in Ireland. He and a senior colleague who was also sacked, Mr Eugene McGlone, have accepted demoted positions in the union, albeit with the full salaries attached to their previous positions.
This follows the findings of an appeals panel which, the union said in a statement earlier this month, confirmed the charges against them.
A copy of the panel's findings in the case of Mr O'Reilly, however, has been seen by The Irish Times. It shows that the most notable charges against him were dismissed.
These related to his recruitment into the ATGWU of the Irish Locomotive Drivers Association and the Cork Operative Butchers Society.
These sets of charges were identified this month by the union's assistant general secretary in Britain, Mr Jimmy Elsby, as the most serious against the two men.
Mr O'Reilly was accused of a number of offences in relation to the ILDA drivers, including:
- arranging their admission to the ATGWU without the proper processing of individual applications;
- conducting the matter in a manner that endangered the ATGWU's relationship with other unions;
- and failing to account for his actions to the general secretary, Mr Bill Morris.
The appeal panel decided there was insufficient evidence to prove the charges.
It did find Mr Morris was correct to conclude that Mr O'Reilly had failed to properly report a SIPTU complaint to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions about the ILDA recruitment, which congress upheld.
It said Mr O'Reilly had also failed to respond to a request for further details from Mr Morris about industrial action by the ILDA members.
However, the panel said it could not ignore the fact that Mr Morris had failed to hold a thorough investigation of the ILDA matters before disciplinary action commenced.
"\ breach of procedure could have jeopardised a fair hearing of this part of the case. In the circumstances, the panel have decided to dismiss the charges in relation to . . . ILDA."
A similar conclusion was reached in relation to the Cork Operative Butchers Society, which Mr O'Reilly recruited into the ATGWU in January 1999.
Again, the panel said it agreed with Mr Morris on some of the charges, but there was insufficient evidence to prove others.
It dismissed all of the charges, however, because it "felt unable to ignore the failure of the general secretary to hold a thorough investigation before the disciplinary process commenced".
These findings of the three-person panel, comprising members of the union's executive, are embarrassing for Mr Morris, who retires from his post this year and is one of the most influential trade union leaders in Britain.
Mr O'Reilly was sacked by Mr Morris for failing to implement union procedures; he may not have expected that the appeal panel would accuse him of the same thing.
A variety of charges against Mr O'Reilly were upheld. It found that he instigated a ballot for positions in the union based on an incorrect interpretation of the rules.
It also found he had arranged for a senior official to take a solicitor with him to a tribunal hearing when the union had arranged for solicitors to be present.
"It is . . . clear from his testimony that Brother O'Reilly did not understand the union was a single legal entity nor could he see the seriousness of failing to understand this point," the panel found.
It upheld a charge that he had unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of a regional industrial organiser without taking into account the agreed terms and conditions of officers employed in the Republic.
The panel also found Mr O'Reilly had not dealt with employee relations in certain cases, including an episode of "public bullying/shouting" by a named official, as he should have done.
Some other charges were found to have been "partly demonstrated" by Mr Morris, including a "lack of clarity and coherence" on Mr O'Reilly's part "regarding a system for checking the eligibility of members".
Other charges, including a claim that Mr O'Reilly had concluded the settlement of a legal claim without the knowledge of the general secretary, were dismissed.