METRO drivers have received online threats and abuse, a trade union has claimed, following inaccurate reports that a teenage boy was prevented from getting on a bus because he was wearing a Linfield jacket.
Gareth McKelvey had said he was not allowed on a bus on the Lisburn Road in Belfast on Tuesday morning because he was wearing the jacket.
But a Translink spokeswoman said on Friday that after checking CCTV footage the company "can concur that this incident did not happen as reported".
Metro driver representative for Unite, Michael Dornan, said following the claims workers have been "the target of abuse and threats on social media".
"There is a strong culture in the workforce of treating passengers the same regardless of their religious and cultural beliefs and irrespective of our own," he said.
"We welcome the fact that Translink management has come out in support of us and we hope that those that have repeated the allegations on various websites will now realise that it was not a true version of what happened."
