A former vehicle inspector at a National Car Test centre has been awarded €35,000 in an unfair dismissal case, despite testing his own vehicle in breach of his contract of employment.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled that Richard Godsland was entitled to compensation because his employer only launched disciplinary action 15 months after he tested his own car.
Applus Car Testing, the Spanish company which holds the contract to operate the NCT on behalf of the Road Safety Authority, informed the tribunal that all employees receive one free car test a year, but are not allowed to complete that test themselves. Company policy also forbids employees from testing vehicles which belong to a family member.
The tribunal heard that Mr Godsland, who had worked at NCT centres since 2003, tested his own vehicle on March 10, 2012. He denied ever being informed that doing so would result in his dismissal.
The tribunal also heard Mr Godsland complained against Applus’s attempt to increase his working hours in February 2013.
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In June 2013 he was called to an meeting in relation to his car test. Mr Godsland said the delay of more than a year in investigating the matter was not explained.
At the meeting on July 8 he accepted that he had reassigned his own car from another inspector to himself in “an effort to get things started early”. He described this as a lapse of judgement at a second investigative meeting, held three weeks later. He was subsequently suspended on pay before being sacked in August 2013.
The tribunal ruled that Mr Godsland, whom they accepted was an experienced and long-standing employee, had tested his own vehicle in breach of NCT regulations.
The tribunal said his action had the potential to embarrass Applus and to undermine its reputation. The company had no option but to take serious issue with Mr Godsland’s actions, the tribunal said.
However, it found the company’s delay before launching an investigation into the matter amounted to “unfair process”. As a consequence it ruled that Mr Godsland was unfairly dismissed and awarded him a sum of €35,000.
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It is the second case in the past year that Applus has faced a tribunal hearing over its decision to sack an employee who had tested their own vehicle. The tribunal ruled in January that the company had fairly dismissed Andrew Barron, another inspector, after it was discovered that he had tested his car on three occasions at the test centre in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
More than 1.3 million cars were tested at 46 NCT centres last year with vehicles obtaining a pass rate of 48.4 per cent for full tests and 90.9 per cent for retests.