An Industrial Tribunal has awarded a man €30,000 in compensation after ruling that his dismissal last year was unfair.

Joseph Baldacchino had been employed as a toolmaker and handyman with F.S. Engineering and Plastics Limited since 2010, until all of a sudden in June 2013, he had his job terminated, with the company claiming it was a redundancy because there was a slowdown in work.

However, the tribunal heard that his employment was terminated just a few days after an argument with the company director who did not approve an hour's leave for Mr Baldacchino to visit his son who at the time was in hospital.

Mr Baldacchino told the tribunal that Mr Saliba told him that he did not care about his family, but just wanted to get the work done. He said Mr Saliba not only did not grant him leave but ordered him to stay overtime.

That same week, he was summoned to the director’s office and found his termination paperwork ready and laid out on the desk, including the FS3.

Mr Baldacchino testified that the working relationship between the two turned sour when Mr Saliba found out that he was a member of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin which had written to him, as company director, to improve working conditions.

Several former employees testified that they had been seeing a systematic 'hire and fire' approach by the company management and, for the company, employees were just numbers.

The tribunal, chaired by Charmaine Cristiano Grech, noted that notwithstanding the fact that the employee was made redundant, the work he used to do was still required, and continued to be done.

Moreover, it said it found it very strange how the job termination came a few days after the two quarrelled.

She therefore ruled that the termination was unjust and illegal and awarded him €30,000 in compensation.

Lawyer Andrew Grima, on behalf of the UHM, appeared for Mr Baldacchino.