The Labour Court upheld a recommendation that Southern Health Board’s disciplinary action against a worker stand, while recommending that the Board consider restoring him to porter grade if a vacancy arose. The Court dated its decision 13 March 1998.
The dispute followed an incident in which the worker took a patient’s box of chocolates home. The Board suspended him without pay for almost two months and later redeployed him as a general operative. The Rights Commissioner had found the Board’s actions reasonable and recommended that they stand.
Services Industrial Professional Technical Union appealed, saying the sanction was too severe given the chocolates’ low value and the worker’s long service. The Board said the incident involved an employee in a position of trust and that it had suspended him rather than dismissed him.
The Court concluded that the recommendation was not unreasonable and should be upheld. It also recommended that the Board consider returning the worker to porter grade when a vacancy arose.