Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

A Supervisor

A National Service

Representatives

SIPTU

 General Manager

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

IR - SC - 00003075

03/09/2024

The Worker was stood down from duties to allow for an investigation into an incident in April 2020.

It was his dispute that he should be compensated for the loss of earnings and promotional opportunity during the time it took the Employer to conduct the investigation to the time he returned to his full duties.

It was the Workers submission that there was inordinate delay on the part of the Employer to investigate the incident in April 2020 up to the time he retuned to his full duties in September 2024 resulting in a loss of significant loss of earnings and promotional opportunity.

It was the Employer’s submission that this matter was subject to a Recommendation from the Workplace Relations Commission in March 2023 and where it was not appealed to the Labour Court it has already been addressed.

It was further submitted that the Worker did not incur loss of earnings and presented a table of income earned from 2019 to 2023. It was further submitted that he was not entitled to apply for the promotional opportunity as (A) it was not advertised, (B) he did not have authorisation to practice and (C) there was no evidence of his application. 

In conducting my investigation, I have taken into account all relevant submissions presented to me by the parties.

The Recommendation of 29 March 2023 expressly stated no compensation for the delay was recommended. This Recommendation of the Workplace Relations Commission must be respected. Consequently, I am only willing to consider events after the date of the Recommendation, i.e., 29 March 2023 up until the date this dispute was received on 03 September 2024. 

Therefore, in considering the delay there are two key points; the final investigation report was issued on 28 April 2023, but the disciplinary outcome did not occur until 13 July 2023. No reason for this delay was given. Where no action was taken by the Employer, the Employee through his Union had to follow up by letter of August 2023 on the Worker’s direction to attend training. 

It is accepted that the Worker attended training in September but only for a period of 2 weeks before returning in February 2024 until May 2024 when he successful completed his examinations. There is no objective reason why he could not have finished the training he started in the September 2023. This further delayed the Workers return to work.

Again, there is no reason for another delay in the Worker’s return to full duties not happening for a further 3 months in September 2024.

The fact the Worker has yet to receive authorisation from the Medical Director of the Employer to resume his duties is even more puzzling when he has at this stage being actively practising for over 3 months.

In summary, it is recommended that once a sanction of training is decided, the Employer must make every effort to implement a disciplinary outcome to allow a Worker return to work as quickly as possible. Further delays in a Worker’s returning to their full duties can reasonably be considered as wholly unfair ongoing or additional sanction.

It is recommended that: -

1.      The Employer compensates the Worker in the sum of €4,500 for the delay from 28 April 2023 until the date he resumed his full duties on 3 September 2024 while discounting the 3.5 months he was retraining. It should be noted that this compensation is for delay only and not loss of earnings.  

2.      Within 8 weeks of the date of this Recommendation that the Worker be given formal authorisation to practice by the Medical Director.

IR – Disciplinary - Delay