A tribunal has ordered a company to pay a former employee €6,290 (Lm2,700) in compensation after ruling that the termination of her employment was unfair.

The Industrial Tribunal, chaired by Alphonse Caruana, found that Dhalia Estate Agency's termination of Diane Bayliss' employment was not justified by law and so awarded her compensation.

The tribunal heard that Ms Bayliss was employed as an accounts assistant on February 17, 2004 on a part-time basis. In October that year she was awarded a full-time contract. Her employment was terminated in June 2005 after she was served with two warnings in April 2005.

Ms Bayliss claimed that her termination was unjustified adding that the company started picking on her when she refused to work hours that were longer than the ones laid out in her contract.

The company argued that Ms Bayliss' employment was terminated because of various shortcomings in her work. It claimed that, although she initially did her job property, as time passed she started making mistakes and leaving work early, among other things.

On evaluating the details of the case, the tribunal noted that Ms Bayliss worked at the company for a rather short time - between February 2004 and June 2005 - and the company said that she initially did her job well. The company failed to clearly explain at what stage did Ms Bayliss start slacking.

The tribunal found that the shortcomings attributed to Ms Bayliss were not sufficient reason to sack her. It would have been better if the company had tackled the matter differently and looked into what caused the employee to change before resorting to firing her.