Robotics firm must compensate employee after maternity policy change 

WRC adjudication officer ordered company to pay former employee compensation of €14,615 — the equivalent of 20 weeks’ pay — within 42 days. Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins 

A Dublin robotics firm has been ordered to pay over €14,000 in compensation to a female employee after it unilaterally changed its policy on maternity leave to less favourable terms while she was having her first child.

The Workplace Relations Commission upheld a complaint taken by Aisling Bermingham that her former employer, Eiratech Robotics, had breached the Maternity Protection Act 1994 by making changes to the terms and conditions of her employment without her agreement while she was on protected leave.