This article is from page 16 of the 2006-12-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
A CLARE man whose job it is to try to spot terrorists trying to board airplanes won his case for unfair dismissal after his employers claimed he missed a day’s work because he was hungover.
Andrew Brislane from Spanish Point was one of four airline security profilers who was drafted in to Shannon to help ICTS, a company which provides anti-terrorist security services for US airlines. The Employment Appeals Tribunal heard that ICTS is subject to security checks by inspectors from the US Government’s Transportation Security Administration.
In August 2004, the company was to undergo one such check but drafted Brislane and a number of others as three of their staff had resigned the previous month. The Tribunal heard that the drafted profilers had met in a hotel bar the night before. A supervisor of ICTS claimed that he had seen Brislane the next morning looking “rough as if he had a lot to drink.”
Brislane’s brother rang to say that he was sick. Four of the profilers failed to come to work and ICS said they had to put a contingency plan in place which resulted in long queues.
Brislane told the tribunal that he became ill and was told by his doctor that he was suffering from a virus and had had a mild heart attack.
The Tribunal ruled that ICTS had failed to carry out a proper investigation into the incident and had dismissed Brislane’s medical certificates.