Equality Tribunal Awards €125,000 Against Employer – Sep '07

The Equality Tribunal has recently made a substantial award against an employer in an equality-related dismissal case. An employee of the airport ground services firm, Aviance, was dismissed on medical grounds due to cardiac problems.

Having sustained an injury to his arm at work, the employee was attending the company doctor. During the course of the consultation, the employee's history of cardiac problems was discussed. The company doctor would not certify the employee as being fit to return to work and Aviance eventually dismissed the employee.

The Equality Tribunal found that Aviance had not sought to reasonably accommodate the employee on the grounds of disability and awarded the employee €65,000 for loss of earnings, and €60,000 for stress suffered as a result of the discrimination.

We will include a full summary of this significant case in the coming months.

In the meantime, in this month's Ezine, we have included a summary of two Labour Court reasonable accommodation cases.