Munster Express Online

An Employment Appeals Tribunal has ruled that a Bausch and Lomb employee who was sacked after he allegedly hacked into the company’s intranet and posted a ‘company message’ saying 500 job cuts were imminent has been awarded €6,500 compensation for unfair dismissal.

An employee with the contact lens manufacturer for 15 years, Elton Walker of Newports Terrace in Waterford, admitted he posted some messages but denied he was responsible for the one about job cuts. ‘Serious industrial relations issues’ were caused at Bausch and Lomb by the message “500 jobs to be gone at Waterford plant before end of quarter 2008″, a company spokesperson told the tribunal.

A subsequent investigation by the company identified two PCs, one of which was Walker’s workstation and the other used by a female worker, as the source of the hoax message. Both employees were suspended with pay but after a further investigation the other employee was cleared.

In his defence, Walker said the company had produced no clear evidence it was he who had posted the message. His solicitor told the tribunal that the company had failed to produce CCTV evidence, which would have been more conclusive.

See The Munster Express newspaper for full story.