Woman fired over disability to get €40k

Marks & Spencer has been ordered to pay €40,000 to a former employee of its Dundrum store after the Equality Tribunal ruled that she was discriminated against when the store fired her on grounds of disability.

The tribunal found that Marks & Spencer failed to provide appropriate measures that would allow Bernie Clavin to continue to be employed by the company following an injury which she suffered outside work in March 2011.

The tribunal found that in dismissing Ms Clavin, the store “went through some of the motions necessary to defend a discriminatory dismissal claim” but “fell far short of best practice in many ways”.