Worker 'unjustly discharged'

An industrial tribunal presided over by Franco Masini has ordered the reinstatement of an employee of SG Catering Services Ltd under his former working conditions after it found he was unjustly discharged.

The General Workers' Union said the issue involving Alfred Attard dated back to May last year when he was approached by the management who informed him that his employment was being changed from full time to part time basis because of a drop in profits.

He was asked to sign a letter indicating that he agreed with the proposal.

Meanwhile, the GWU added, all the staff, except for Mr Attard, had been called by the management and informed that they would be employed on a part time basis.

The union said this was not acceptable and had directed the workers not to sign the letter giving their consent to working part time.

After Mr Attard refused to sign the letter, he was informed he was being discharged because his post had become redundant.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb had intervened in the case but nothing concrete resulted except that Mr Attard was given leave in the month of September when the issue had to be looked into in an effort to find a solution. But Mr Attard remained without a job.

In its ruling, the tribunal said Mr Attard's dismissal was unjust and breached the relevant legal notice which laid down that the refusal of a request such as that made to Mr Attard did not constitute a valid reason to terminate employment.

The tribunal also ruled that when the company had abandoned its plan to change the conditions of employment of all its employees it had isolated just one worker from its workforce and used the nature of his work as a pretext for redundancy.

The industrial tribunal ordered that Mr Attard should be re-employed in his same post under his former conditions with effect from Friday.