Worker’s action over blocked access to Dublin Airport resolved, court hears

High Court reporters

A Dublin Airport contract worker’s action seeking to stop DAA from blocking his access to the airport has been resolved, the High Court has heard.

Colm Dunne’s action against the airport operator was the second set of High Court proceedings to arise from an incident in which the IT systems engineer told an Aer Lingus customer services check-in representative to “f**k off”.

It was Mr Dunne’s case that he was being blocked by DAA from accessing the airport on foot of this incident. He said the airport operator was unlawfully interfering with his contractual and constitutional right to work at the airport.

On Friday, Mr Dunne’s senior counsel Conor Power SC, instructed by Feran & Co solicitors, told Mr Justice Brian Cregan that the dispute between his client and DAA was fully resolved.

Mr Power said the proceedings could be struck out, and an order made for legal costs to be awarded to Mr Dunne.

Mr Dunne’s separate proceedings challenging his dismissal from his job with IT firm ESP Global Services arising from the “f**k off” incident was settled earlier this week, and he was reinstated in his job.

Following his reinstatement, Mr Dunne had to be reassigned elsewhere in the company, due to DAA’s alleged blocking of his access to the airport, the court previously heard.

“The idea that one expletive leads to two High Court cases is a complete failure of common sense,” Mr Justice Cregan observed.

The “f**k off” incident happened towards the end of Mr Dunne’s night shift in the early hours of January 27th last, when he was fixing a faulty self-service flight check-in kiosk.

An Aer Lingus customer service representative approached him to fix another kiosk when Mr Dunne said he “regrettably” told him to “go away” and “f**k off”.

Mr Dunne (34), of St Laurence’s Park, Drogheda, Co Louth, brought proceedings against ESP challenging his dismissal arising from the incident.

He said he apologised for the remark, and stated that his dismissal was extremely harsh and not proportionate.

The matter was resolved, and Mr Dunne reinstated in his role, but he was told that DAA decided that his conduct had “fallen below what it considers an acceptable standard and it has withdrawn permission for [Mr Dunne] to work at the airport”. This gave rise to the second set of proceedings.