A former customer service administrator at a gaming company was awarded nearly €16,000 in compensation after a tribunal found he had been illegally dismissed after a transfer of business.
Gaming VC Corporation terminated the employee's job following its acquisition by GVC New Limited in 2012.
The Industrial Tribunal, chaired by Charles Cassar, heard that the worker had been employed in June 2008.
Talks began in March 2012 for GVC New Ltd to take over the business of Gaming VC Corporation.
The man was offered a job with GVC but had his working conditions substantially changed.
He told the tribunal his gross annual salary had been cut by €9,000 and benefits he had with Gaming VC, such as a private insurance scheme and a private pension scheme, were stopped.
Through his lawyer, Mario de Marco, the former employee insisted that, according to law, employees were to retain their salaries, perks and working conditions in the event of a transfer of business. He said GVC New refused to acknowledge that the acquisition of Gaming VC amounted to a transfer of business.
The employee told the tribunal that, in May 2012, he had received a letter from the HR manager informing him of the transfer of business and this was followed by various meetings on his new working conditions. No agreement had ever been reached because of the substantial changes to his working conditions.
He said he had sent e-mails to both companies asking who was his new employer but he never received any replies, forcing him to stop reporting for work. GVC Gaming had eventually informed the ETC (now JobsPlus) that his job had been terminated.
GVC New’s lawyer, Jonathan Thompson, argued that the worker should have sought advice from the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations rather than deciding to stop reporting for work. This effectively meant he had not been sacked but actually terminated his own employment.
He said Gaming VC had terminated Mr Bruno’s job because he failed to inform it whether he had accepted the new conditions offered by GVC New.
Gaming VC’s lawyer, Paul Gonzi, argued that his client could not be held responsible for what had happened between the employee and GVC New because, at the time of the transfer of business, he automatically became a GVC New employee.
The tribunal upheld this argument and ruled that he had become GVC New’s employee and that, according to law, he could not have been offered inferior working conditions.
The law laid down that: “Whenever a transfer which involves a substantial change in working conditions to the detriment of the employee results in the termination of the contract of employment, the employer shall be regarded as having been responsible for such a termination”.
It, therefore, ordered GVC New Ltd to pay the former employee €16,250 within eight weeks.