A crane operator was given more than €5,000 in compensation after he was fired because he refused to drive a crane he was not licensed to drive.

Anġlu Mallia lost his job in April of last year, after he informed his boss that he was not going in for work because the licence that he needed to drive the crane had yet been paid for by the company.

An industrial tribunal had heard Vassallo Construction Limited explain that Mr Mallia was fired because he was not carrying out his work properly. The company said that whenever he was assigned to a job, he would make sure that he would leave early, when he was supposed to stop at 3.30 p.m. on the job site, no matter how much work was left pending on the construction site.

It added that he had become very inflexible in his working hours and that if he received a fine for driving the crane without a licence, the company would have paid the fine. Appearing for Mr Mallia, lawyer David Gatt, told the tribunal that even if the fine was paid by the company it would still have reflected badly on his client. He added that he would stop working early as the crane needed to be at the company’s Mosta garage at 3.30 p.m.

The tribunal decided that he was unfairly dismissed and ordered that the company pay him €5,329 in compensation.