Industrial tribunal awards €35,000 for unjust dismissal

Eduardo Babato, represented by Dr Ian Spiteri Bailey, filed a case before the Industrial Tribunal against his former employers Vittoriosa Gaming Limited claiming unfair dismissal over an incident for which he wasn’t even present for.

Babato started working for Casino di Venezia in July 2003 as Head of Security and Surveillance. Despite having optimally conducted his work and having a good relation with his head, he received a dismissal letter without any justifiable reason on 16 July 2006.

He said the letter referred to an incident in the casino on 9 July 2006 on the day of the World Cup final, of which he only got to know about the next day. On 24 August the Lotteries and Gaming Authority informed him that there was no basis for his suspension and he was given his license back. Babato said that he had never faced any disciplinary action and sometimes he worked far more hours than normal and even collaborated with the police to arrest fraudulent gamers.

VGL, represented by Dr Michael Psaila claimed that its general manager had received a letter from the gaming authority on 14 July 2006 stating that Babato’s license had been revoked, due to a “distinct lack of responsibility shown towards the casino, the management, employees, guests and the casino’s reputation locally and abroad” in view of the incident on 9 July.

VGL also claimed it was not aware of the fact that Babato had 21 days to appeal the LGA decision to revoke his licence, and had proceeded to award the job to somebody else who had left another casino. Had it given Babato his job back, the new employee would have lost two jobs.

The Industrial Tribunal observed that it is the company’s duty to be aware of all the regulations especially those relating to its employees. It further added that the situation shouldn’t have been remedied in such a way to Babato’s detriment and it could have pushed to find a reasonable solution to all the parties’ satisfaction.