Brendan Ogle loses disability discrimination claim against Unite

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Brendan Ogle lost his disability discrimination claim against Unite at the Workplace Relations Commission; the ruling was reported on 9 October 2024.

The complaint arose after Ogle returned to work following treatment for throat cancer. He had alleged that Unite failed to provide reasonable accommodation, victimised and harassed him. The WRC rejected those claims in their entirety under the Employment Equality Act 1998.

The adjudicator found that Unite’s shift from political to industrial work affected Ogle’s duties but was unconnected to his disability. She preferred Tom Fitzgerald’s account of the disputed whiteboard meeting and found Ogle’s account not plausible. The ruling followed ten hearings between November 2023 and June 2024 in Dublin.