Amenity staff sacked
The Fairgreen Civic Amenity Site.
THREE employees dismissed by Craigavon Borough Council on fraud allegations are due to lodge an appeal against the decision.
They are among five workers at the Fairgreen amenity site who have been subjected to an 18-month probe. A fourth worker left on medical grounds during the course of the investigation. The fifth case is still being considered.
The men were suspended on full pay in July 2010, and the investigation is thought to have cost the council in the region of £100,000 so far, with so-called ”casuals” employed to carry out the work.
The dismissals were announced at a special meeting of the council last week following a probe carried out by senior staff.
It is thought that council members are unhappy with the cost and length of the investigation, which began in March 2010 under almost farcical conditions.
A ‘covert’ operation ordered by the council at that stage involved the installation of CCTV cameras by an outside, private firm, who set up four cameras, sound recording equipment and a ‘router’ device on a Sunday morning.
But the installation was recorded by the council’s own security equipment in the amenity offices and was “rumbled” by the staff when they reported for work on the Monday. That led to meetings between council officers and the unions, the equipment was removed and the investigation was delayed from the start.
Officers from the men’s union, the GMB, are refusing to comment on the latest developments. But they will use the channel of an appeal through the council’s chief executive office, and if that fails, the next avenue will be a tribunal. Union sources claimed that the men were dismissed “on the balance of probability” and that an appeal was a certainty.
A council source told the Portadown Times that the timescale of the investigation was “unacceptable and would not have taken nearly as long in the private sector”.
The source added, “We do understand that officers have to be ultra careful in a situation like this. But we are deeply unhappy at the time and cost to the ratepayers. The decision was up to the officers. Councillors were simply informed of the situation - that’s the way these things must be done - but many questions have to be answered.”
There is a short time span to bring the appeal to the office of the chief executive, and it is understood that the union will prepare its case within the next couple of weeks, after which an appeal date will be set.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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