Labour Court upholds G4S recommendation with added conditions for worker’s return

The Labour Court upheld the thrust of a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation in an appeal by G4S Security Services (Ireland) Ltd, while adding conditions for a worker’s possible return to his former location. The decision was dated 27 January 2009. The dispute followed an incident in which the worker’s behaviour offended a fellow worker. G4S issued a written warning and transferred him. The Court found that inappropriate verbal and physical behaviour had occurred and that some sanction was merited, but one incident alone did not constitute bullying and harassment. It also found G4S’s procedures imprecise and flawed and said they should be tightened and amended. The Rights Commissioner had recommended reducing the warning to a verbal warning and treating it as expired, and accommodating the worker if he wished to return to his original location. The Court added that G4S should counsel him about expected behaviour before any return, if the location remained available. The worker was also asked to reflect on whether to apologise to the colleague he had offended. The worker was represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union; G4S had sought to retain the original sanctions.