Bus driver who was refused job awarded €6,000

A BUS driver who regularly drove 70 children to school has been awarded €6,000 after Bus Éireann refused him a job driving in a city centre, arguing the stress would be bad for his heart.

The man, a Bus Éireann employee in Co Cork, applied for the job of seasonal driver with the company because his school run did not operate during the summer months.

However, he was turned down for the job following a medical assessment by the company’s chief medical officer (CMO), who diagnosed a heart defect. The CMO said his condition represented “a risk of sudden incapacity while driving”, and the position of school bus driver was less stressful for a person with this type of defect.