Equality Tribunal orders €30,000 payment

THE Equality Tribunal has ordered a Government department to pay an employee €30,000 in compensation after it found that he had been discriminated against on disability grounds.

The unnamed man, who has been a state employee since 1981, told the tribunal he was diagnosed with hypertension in 2002 and went on sick leave in 2004 on the advice of a consultant physician who considered that his position “was causing him stress and exacerbating his blood pressure”.

In February of the following year, while he was still on sick leave, he said he told the Government department he wanted to apply for early retirement on ill health grounds on the advice of his GP and the consultant physician.