The Complainant contended that he was discriminated against by the Respondent because of his Autism, Asperger’s, and difference in cognitive style. He maintained that his application to a summer school training event was denied on grounds of his disability and that the Respondent had also discriminated against him for failing to provide ‘reasonable accommodation’ for his disability.

The Complainant applied to attend the IMPACT campaigning Summer School Course held in 2017. The Complainant was provisionally accepted subject to his branch’s approval, but he failed to secure this approval. The course was aimed specifically at senior activists, particularly those who had sat previous courses. The Union had a process for selection for training courses. Branches were required to nominate members for a course. Mr McNamee, (the Complainant) was no longer a branch committee member at the time of his request.

The funding arrangements were that the union would pay 50% of the accommodation and potential attendees were required to seek branch funding for the remainder and travel costs. The Respondent contended that the Complainant had never raised any issue of disability. He was referred to his branch to seek their support and funding which they refused as it had a very small membership and confined their limited funding to training branch committee members only.

In reaching their decision, the court noted the evidence concerning the union process for selection for training courses and accepted there was no deviation from such process.  The Court also recognised that the branch which had a small membership had a policy of prioritization for training course attendees given the funding arrangements.

There was also evidence provided regarding the inclusion of at least one member with a disability on the course. Therefore, the Complainant’s claim was denied as he had not established a prima facie case.
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2019/april/adj-00012244.html