Recovering alcoholic gets €6,000 compo

A RECOVERING alcoholic who was passed over for promotion is to get €6,000 distress compensation and be appointed to the higher grade immediately with all salary and benefits backdated.

In a separate case, the Equality Tribunal ordered that a female civil servant, Carmel Boyle, from the Dungloe, Co Donegal, office of the Department of Social & Family Affairs is to receive stress compensation of €10,000.

She successfully argued the reason she wasn’t recommended for a more senior position was directly related to her not being able to carry out computer tasks due to her serious eye condition.

Welcoming the decisions, the Equality Authority called for transparency in the recruitment and selection process.

Mr A, who is to receive €6,000 compensation, was the longest serving staff member in his grade in an unspecified government department.

He is an alcoholic who underwent treatment in 1995 and has been in recovery since.

Knowledge of his alcoholism, he said, influenced a government department committee’s decision not to recommend him for the higher position.

His line managers had assessed him suitable for promotion and were happy with his performance at his present grade, but he still failed to get the job.

The equality officer held that alcoholism was a disability under the equality employment legislation - and rejected the department view the man was no longer suffering from a disability.

The equality officer was satisfied Mr A was not recommended for promotion where a significant number of candidates with similar or inferior overall assessment ranking had been recommended as suitable.

The Equality Tribunal also ordered a Dublin food takeaway premises to pay €2,000 to a Traveller who was chased away with a baton by the proprietor.