Laid-off workers awarded compensation

The Industrial Tribunal has ordered Joinwell Company Ltd to pay compensation to two former employees after ruling that their dismissal had been unfair.

The General Workers' Union said that Carmel and Joseph Darmanin were dismissed from the company, where they had worked for about 40 years, in 2003 when the company was going through a turbulent time.

The company had not honoured the collective agreement and had laid off people without observing the principle that an employee who had been there the longest should be laid off last, the union said. For this reason the dismissal was deemed unfair and the union took the case to the tribunal, where the company recognised that it had not acted according to law.

The union did not specify the amount awarded.