A HOUSE painter who claimed his complaints about colleagues ignoring the workplace smoking ban were treated "with disdain" has been awarded €7,200 compensation by an Employment Appeals Tribunal, writes Andrew Bushe
The tribunal found that Kevin Vaughan of Figart, Carrygart, Co Donegal was constructively dismissed by Paul McGaughey of Mulroy, Carrygart.
Mr Vaughan had worked for Mr McGaughey's painting contractor business from 2003 until last March, and prior to that he had worked with Mr McGaughey's father from 1999.
At a hearing in Letterkenny last month, the tribunal was told his employment was uneventful until the introduction of the smoking ban in 2004.
Mr Vaughan was one of a team of five, including his boss, working on painting mainly new premises, most of them housing developments. He was the only non-smoker, and while he had no objection to his colleagues smoking outside he continually complained about smoking inside in his presence.
He told the tribunal that both his colleagues and "particularly" Mr McGaughey "treated his complaints with disdain".
A determination issued yesterday by the tribunal said Mr McGaughey's position was that while smoking did take place inside the various workplaces, Mr Vaughan had never raised the issue with him.
During the final months of his employment Mr Vaughan was working on a site 70km from home and there was a disagreement about working hours and finishing times.
He left the site on March 31st and did not return to work, citing Mr McGaughey's failure to act on his complaints about smoking and the "unilateral alternation" of his contract on working hours.
The tribunal said while Mr McGaughey denied Mr Vaughan had ever complained about smoking, he did accept that smoking did occur in the workplace. "He acknowledged that he had now told his employees not to smoke in the workplace but had not issued written notices about this issue."
The tribunal said it was satisfied that Mr Vaughan "was unhappy about the breaches of the smoking control regulations and is further satisfied that he brought this to the attention" of Mr McGaughey.
It also accepted the evidence of Mr Vaughan on the issue of finishing time on the site, and said he was "entitled to consider himself constructively dismissed".