Complainant

Respondent

Parties

George-Calin  Breban

Esquires Coffee Findlater House T/A Esquires Coffee

Representatives

  N/A

Richard Holden, JMK Group

Act

Complaint Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 21 Equal Status Act, 2000

CA-00046505-001

03/10/2021

This case arises out of an incident which occurred on 24th July 2021.

The Complainant entered a coffee shop in Dublin and was not wearing a face mask.

The Complainant alleges that the events which followed constitute discrimination within the meaning of the Equal Status Act 2000, on the ground of disability.

The Complainant submitted an ES1 form to the Respondent on September 1st 2021, in relation to the incident.

The Respondent denies the claim.

The Complainant did not attend the adjudication hearing and was not represented.

The Respondent attended the adjudication hearing.

The complaint was received by the Director General of the Workplace Relations commission on 3rd October 2021 whereby the Complainant alleged that the Respondent contravened the provisions of Equal Status 2000 in relation to him. The complaint was assigned the complaint application number CA-00046505-001.

The said complaint was referred to me for investigation. A hearing for that purpose was arranged for 8th December 2022, at 10.30 am in the Workplace Relations Commission’s offices in Cork. There was no appearance by or on behalf of the Complainant at the hearing.

I am satisfied that the Complainant was on notice of the hearing by letter dated 28th October 2022.

When a party has not attended at the appointed date/time of a hearing, my approach is to allow a grace period of approximately fifteen (15) minutes, and then convene the hearing.

In this instance, as correspondence from the Complainant (an email date and time stamped: 6th December 2022: 17:47) had been uploaded to the casefile (ADJ-00035317) and copied to me by the Workplace Relations Commission Post-Registration Unit (PRU), the day before the hearing (7th December 2022: 16:14), I also rang the Case Officer and requested that the Case Officer contact the Complainant by phone.

I rang and spoke to the Case Officer at 10.42 am on 8th December 2022. He rang me back four minutes later, at 10.46 am, to inform me that he had rung the Complainant, that the Complainant’s mobile phone had rung out and cut off.

I then convened the hearing.

I noted, at the hearing, that no appearance was entered by or on behalf of the Complainant. I then formally drew the hearing to a close. The hearing concluded prior to 11 am.

I was informed by the Case Officer later in the day that the Complainant returned his phone call at approximately 12 pm, subsequent to the conclusion of the convened hearing.

I find that as the Complainant was not in attendance to pursue the complaint, the complaint should be dismissed for want of evidence.

Equal Status; No appearance;