HSE told to pay employee €50,000 compo

The HSE has been ordered to pay €70,000 compensation to an employee after the Equality Tribunal ruled it had failed to take reasonable steps to accommodate her disability.

HSE West was sharply criticised by equality officer Marian Duffy, who said a human relations manager at the health authority had not taken the woman’s medical problem seriously.

The tribunal found the HSE had discriminated against the unidentified medical secretary on grounds of her disability.

The woman, who worked for HSE West at the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick since April 2001, claimed she suffered from a debilitating bowel condition as well as being diagnosed with a disease of the colon. She informed the HSE that her condition meant she needed to be able to access a toilet and have an office on her own.

Her claims were backed up by medical evidence that stated her disease was not curable but manageable and treatable, and that her need for access to a nearby toilet was imperative.

In Jul 2007, the HSE told the claimant she would have to move from her existing office.

The woman told the tribunal that she was warned by a HR manager that she would be moved to another job and would no longer be a medical secretary if she did not move to the new office.

However, the tribunal said her request for a single office had been completely ignored. “There was no adequate investigation carried out to find out what could be put in place to accommodate the complainant in her position as a medical secretary,” the tribunal said.

It noted that the HSE had taken six months after the woman went out on sick leave, after she was moved from her office, to meet her to discuss the issue. The tribunal said the HSE had “not been proactive in any way” in trying to resolve the problem.

It claimed the offer of alternative posts, which were in very busy and public areas of the hospital, did not constitute reasonable efforts by the HSE to accommodate the employee’s needs.

The HSE rejected all claims it had discriminated the woman and sought unsuccessfully to have her case thrown out for being outside legal time limits.

The HSE said it had offered the claimant six alternative posts between Oct 2009 and Mar 2012 at a number of other locations in Limerick.

The tribunal also ordered the HSE to provide the woman with her own office near toilet facilities in the hospital and to make arrangement for her return to work as a medical secretary.

In another case, the tribunal ordered parcel delivery firm UPS to pay €63,000 compensation to a former driver who was discriminated on grounds of disability.

The claimant, Fergal Reilly, was not allowed to return to work as a lead driver with UPS after he suffered a major work-related injury on his left knee.

Mr Reilly claimed that he was constructively dismissed after the company failed to reasonably accommodate him in a new role.