UD119/2015

EMPLOYMENT APPEALS TRIBUNAL

CLAIM(S) OF:                                                                                                          CASE NO.

Philip Curley

- claimant                                                                                                                  UD119/2015

Against

Iarnrod Eireann (Irish Rail)

- respondent

under

UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACTS 1977 TO 2007

I certify that the Tribunal

(Division of Tribunal)

Chairman:   Ms P. McGrath B.L.

Members:     Mr P. Pierson

                    Mr N. Dowling

heard this claim at Mullingar on 29th October 2015

Representation:

Claimant(s) : Mr Donal Keigher, Donal Keigher & Co Solicitors,

                     Northgate Street, Athlone, County Westmeath

Respondent(s) : Mr. Colm Costello, Coras Iompair Eireann, Solicitors,

                         Bridgewater House, Islandbridge, Dublin 8

The determination of the Tribunal was as follows:-

Determination

The Tribunal has carefully considered the evidence adduced in the course of this comprehensive hearing.

The claimant was dismissed from his employment of seventeen years in October 2014 (affirmed on appeal in November 2014) for attending work in an inebriated state on the 19 August 2014. The claimant’s manager had been notified on that day of the claimant’s erratic behaviour and directed that the claimant be tested for drugs and alcohol by the independent third party tester. The claimant failed the alcohol test conducted by way of a breathalyser test and the test for drugs came back negative.

The claimant was suspended on full pay when the results were made known to his employer. The Tribunal was advised that the claimant had in his system almost six times the allowable level of alcohol as measured in drink driving cases. The claimant’s solicitor challenged the veracity of the breathalyser test but the Tribunal notes that this evidence was not challenged in any of the earlier proceedings and must accept the claimant’s clear oral evidence that on the evening before the test was conducted that he had in fact drank up to five bottles of wine and arrived at work with only four hours sleep.

The Tribunal heard much evidence concerning the claimant’s difficult history leading up to the incident and the Tribunal has every sympathy for the claimant who came across as a reliable and honest witness. The claimant accepts that he had been wrestling with alcohol issues for some time prior to the incident in question but regardless of whether this was the first time or the tenth time that the claimant had arrived to work with so much alcohol in his system is irrelevant. The Tribunal has to accept (even if it was a first time one off incident) any employer expected to run a safe and hazard free workplace is well within the limits of good practice and reasonableness in dismissing an employee for arriving into the workplace with such levels of alcohol.

The Tribunal notes that there were post-dismissal talks between the claimant and his employer and the direction that these talks took whilst commendable did not in any way invalidate the decision to dismiss which arose out of a very serious and potentially dangerous set of circumstances.

The claim under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 2007 is therefore dismissed.

Sealed with the Seal of the

Employment Appeals Tribunal

This   ________________________

(Sgd.) ________________________

     (CHAIRMAN)