Labour Court recommends two Bord Na Mona workers be considered for return to transport duties

The Labour Court recommended that two Bord Na Mona workers be considered for a return to transport duties after January 1997, amending a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation on the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union’s appeal. The recommendation was signed on 17 December 1996. Five workers had been dismissed for falsifying finishing times, then received eight-week suspensions and transfers to general operative duties instead of dismissal. Three later took voluntary redundancy. The union sought the remaining two workers’ immediate return, citing their records and the penalties already imposed; Bord Na Mona said their conduct justified their removal from the transport section. The Court cited the expectation of agreement on a new payment system and the workers’ previously unblemished records in recommending that they be considered for a return after January 1997.