The Complainant was employed by the Respondent as a Receptionist/Office Administrator from May 2018 until March 2019, when her employment was terminated by the Respondent. The Complainant submitted that her dismissal was a consequence of performance issues related to her disability.

The Respondent argued that the Complainant’s employment was terminated on grounds unrelated to her disability. The Respondent asserted that the Complainant’s poor performance had been addressed on numerous occasions. In their submissions, the Respondent outlined that the Complainant’s attention to detail in relation to her data entry work was of a major concern. Throughout the Complainant’s ten months of employment several complaints were made to the Manager that the accuracy of data recorded by the Complainant was not up to standard.

The Adjudication Officer noted that the Respondent placed great reliance on the fact that the Complainant did not formally notify it of her disability and therefore this should absolve the Respondent from the obligation to take account of the Complainant’s disability when making a decision whether or not to retain her in its employment.  The AO did not find the Respondent's evidence compelling:

"Despite its somewhat contradictory evidence, I am of the view that the Respondent was aware that the Complainant had a disability but choose to ignore it."

The Respondent appeared to rely on the fact that the provisions of the Unfair Dismissals Act do not generally apply to employees with less than one year’s service when it decided to terminate the Complainant’s employment. This led the AO to conclude:

"From the evidence adduced at the hearing, it is clear to me that the Respondent’s engagement with the Complainant in relation to her performance was perfunctory at best. Whilst the Respondent may have had concerns about the Complainant’s performance, it did not provide written evidence that it had spoken to the Complainant formally about her performance.  Furthermore, the Respondent had not put the Complainant on notice either formally or informally that the termination of her contract of employment was likely to occur if her performance did not improve."

However, since the Complainant was an individual with a disability, she came within the protections of the Employment Equality Acts which empowered her to make a complaint of discriminatory unfair dismissal even though she had less than 12 months' service in her employment with the Respondent.

The Adjudication Officer was satisfied that the decision to dismiss the Complainant on the grounds of competence was taken in the absence of any assessment of her capabilities and whether reasonable measures could be put in place to address her shortcomings in her work. Accordingly, the Respondent was ordered to pay the Complainant the sum of €10,000 by way of compensation for the distress suffered as a result of the discrimination.

https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2020/june/adj-00023749.html