Labour Court upholds one-week suspension recommendation for Team Aer Lingus worker

In 1998, the Labour Court upheld a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation to reduce a Team Aer Lingus worker’s suspension to one week and rejected the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union’s appeal. The recommendation also said the company should sympathetically consider a request to return the worker to shift work after a year if no further problems arose. The aircraft maintenance assistant had been disciplined after taking sick leave during a week of rostered night duty. The union said a transfer from shift duties to day work added a penalty and caused a substantial loss of earnings; the company said the worker’s conduct justified discipline. The decision was dated 30 January 1998.