Tesco ordered to pay former employee €27,000

TESCO Ireland has been ordered to pay almost €28,000 in compensation after the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled the supermarket group had unfairly sacked one of its managers in a row about smoking in the workplace.

Paul Collins of Tournore Court, Dungarvan, Co Waterford was awarded a total of €27,817.31 after the tribunal decided he was wrongfully dismissed from his job, as night shift manager at Tesco’s store in the Douglas Shopping Centre in Cork.

The tribunal heard that a security officer had an argument with Mr Collins while on night duty on November 4, 2004, because the manager had failed to ask another worker to stop smoking in a canteen. Mr Collins had also asked the security officer not to report the matter.