A TEAM Aer Lingus shop steward, Mr Denis Smith, was found to have been unfairly dismissed from his job and the Employment Appeals Tribunal, sitting in Dublin last week, ruled that he should be reinstated.
The ruling came following a three day hearing at which Mr Smith, who had been chairman of the TEAM Aer Lingus shop stewards' committee, challenged his dismissal for allegedly failing to cooperate with disciplinary procedures after attending an unagreed meeting at the airport on March 26th, 1995.
Mr Frank O'Reilly, national secretary of Mr Smith's union, the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union, said he had convened the disputed meeting and had attended meetings over the suspension of Mr Smith before his dismissal.
He said that Mr Smith had been "hanged, drawn and quartered" by the company while going through the disciplinary proceedings and he was not the only shop steward who had suffered because of union activity.
He complained there had been a total change in management style after 1993 and this was the root of the problems in the company. Mr Smith was not the only trade unionist to have suffered at the hands of the company.
Mr Tom Mallon, counsel for TEAM, said what was being alleged was totally untrue and he said that the company was very supportive of the unions, providing facilities for them and working with them for the betterment of the company and the workers.
Mr O'Reilly said he could not speak for the other unions but, as far as he was concerned, the company was very much against the craft unions.
Mr Paddy Finnegan, another shop steward, said he had attended the meeting from which the dismissal had flowed and he too was suspended. When he eventually returned to work he was transferred from shift work to day work, which was costing him £3-£4,000 a year in lost wages.
He too complained that attitudes had changed in the company, saying morale was poor and the company was endangering itself and the workers by its attitude to the union.
Mr Danny Murphy, a shop steward, said he too was suspended for attending the meeting in question. He said union officers had been victimised and this had been going on since 1994 with the change of management.
. A complaint by Mr Frank Callinan, counsel for Mr Smith, about Irish Times coverage of proceedings on May 8th was noted by the tribunal chairman, Mr Dermot McCarthy SC, who said he accepted that the suggestion that the sacking flowed from an incident in January 1995 was not the case.