This article is from page 8 of the 2006-01-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A TRUCK driver who claimed he was unfairly dismissed lost his case after a private detective took pictures of him working on the Ennis bypass.
Thomas Lynch, Marion Estate, Kilkee made a complaint to the Employment Appeals Tribunal against employer Francis Greene, of Lisdeen, Kilkee.
Lynch was employed by Greene driving a Readymix lorry for €500 a week.
On September 25, 2004, Lynch arrived at the Moneypoint quarry for the third time that day to pick up concrete to deliver.
The quarry manager said the order had been cancelled and he could go home for the day.
Greene contacted Lynch later that day by telephone, saying the driver had cost him money.
Lynch claimed that despite telling his boss that the order had been cancelled, Greene was very aggressive towards him and Lynch said that he asked that any money owed to him be paid.
Lynch’s wife received a cheque on his behalf for €700 and his p45 the following week.
He told the tribunal that he had not worked since but when he was shown pictures of himself in the driver’s seat of a digger at the site of the Ennis bypass, Lynch said that he had been testing the machine and had not received any payment for the half-day he spent on the site.
He denied suggestions that he was working at the bypass for his brother and that he had left Green’s employment planning to do so.
In evidence, Green said that he had employed Lynch on a flat wage of €480. He said that Greene did not show up for work on September 1.
Greene said he spoke to Lynch the following day and Lynch said he wanted a wage rise. The figure of €500 a week was agreed.
Lynch took a week’s holidays later that month and two weeks’ wages were made up and paid to him.
The day after the driver returned from holiday, his employer got a call from the manager of the Moneypoint Quarry to tell him that Lynch was planning to leave.
Green told the Tribunal he went to the lorry which Lynch normally drove and saw that all of the employee’s personal belongings were gone from it.
When he contacted him, Greene said that Lynch told him he was “sick of it” and that he hadn’t been paid that week. Greene explained that he had received two weeks’ wages to cover his holiday week but Lynch said he wanted his p45.
The tribunal found that the claimant did not produce sufficient evidence that he had been dismissed.