Miner off sick for back pain ‘caught on camera’

A mine worker accused of faking the severity of a back injury lost his case for unfair dismissal after private investigators hired by his employer filmed him lifting heavy objects without difficulty.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled that Lisheen Mine had not wrongly sacked Thomas Patton of Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, because of the nature of how he had misrepresented the scale of his injuries.

Mr Patton, who began work at the Co Tipperary mine in Nov 2005 as an underground workshop operator, suffered an injury to his lower back on Nov 3, 2008, while lifting a container during a rescue exercise.