A DJ with Midlands Radio who was paid €60 for fronting a three-hour evening radio show has been awarded €3,000 compensation by the Employment Appeals tribunal after he was dropped from the station's schedule.

According to a tribunal ruling published last week, Damien Quinn of Abbeyderg, Kenagh, Co Longford, said that his show on Midlands Radio was on air from 9pm to midnight Monday to Friday and he was paid €60 per show.

Responding to the case, Seamus Dooley of the NUJ said that he was "not surprised by the low pay revealed in this case".

"The independent commercial radio sector is generally a low-paid anti-union industry with few exceptions. Attempts by the NUJ to organise have met with fierce resistance within the sector and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has tolerated the situation for far too long."

Quinn said he only became aware his show was dropped when he opened the new schedule, which had been left in his pigeon hole, and found that his name was not on it.