Courts / Ireland / Report

Garden designer ordered to pay worker penalised for taking personal injury case

Summary

In a 2023 decision, the Workplace Relations Commission found that Peter O'Brien, owner of Plan Eden Projects, had unlawfully penalised carpenter David Keegan for pursuing a personal injury claim after a fall from scaffolding on 17 January 2022. Keegan, who suffered a serious knee and leg injury, had received three and a half weeks' sick pay but had it stopped on 17 February 2022 when O'Brien wrote to his payroll company that Keegan had "left us, effective today." O'Brien later admitted the dismissal was an administrative error and rectified it on 8 March 2022, but the tribunal deemed the timing of the pay stoppage and the dismissal to be linked to Keegan's legal action. The tribunal awarded Keegan €21,840 in compensation for the breach of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and an additional €3,360 for breaches of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, bringing the total to €25,200.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Garden designer ordered to pay worker penalised for taking personal injury case. Procedural stage: trial

When:

• 17 January 2022 Other
• 3 February Other
• 17 February 2022 Incident
• March 2022 Other
• July 2022 Other
• February 2022 Other
• 8 March 2022 Incident
• 2023-04-20 Publication

Why: Mr Keegan said he felt he was "being punished for going to his solicitor and for taking a case" and was suffering "a lot of financial stress" because of the stop to his sick pay. CNI source report

Case subjects

Topics

Stage Trial

Read the original CNI report