Latest in Employment Law>Case Law>An Employee v A Transport Company [2013]
An Employee v A Transport Company [2013]
Published on: 20/09/2013
Issues Covered: Absence & Sickness
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Bernadette Treanor
Bernadette Treanor
Background

This case centres on the sick absences of the complainant while he was employed for 8 months with the respondent.  During that time he was absent for 23 days for a variety of issues.  His final certificate referred to stress and depression.  The Equality Officer found that the complainant was suffering from a disability as set out in the Acts.

Ten of the absence days were in respect of the disability, depression.  The Equality Officer proceeded to consider if it was reasonable for the respondent to terminate the complainant’s employment based on the remaining 13 days absence and found that it was not.  As the respondent was aware of the complainant’s disability and because he was dismissed seven days after the respondent was made aware of the disability, and because the disability was a major contributor to the complainant’s absences (10 of 23 days) the Equality Officer found that the complainant was discriminatorily dismissed.  As the dismissal took place with 7 days of knowledge of the disability the Equality Officer stated that it was clear that reasonable accommodation was never considered and found that the employer had failed to provide reasonable accommodation.

The complainant was awarded €22,000.

Why is this case of interest?

  • As with the other disability related cases a failure to consider and consult in respect of reasonable accommodation will be detrimental to an employer’s case

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 20/09/2013
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