The Workplace Relations Commission found four complaints by Martin O’Riordan against Abbott Ireland Limited not well-founded, ruling that disciplinary action and a suspension were not imposed because he raised workplace safety concerns. The decision was dated 14 April 2023.
O’Riordan, a general operative, said disciplinary action and a suspension followed his reports of health and safety issues. Abbott Ireland said a verbal warning arose from his conduct during an exchange with a supervisor, while the suspension followed his refusal to sign the company’s code of conduct without conditions.
The WRC accepted that O’Riordan’s safety reports qualified as protected disclosures, but found no sufficient causal link between those reports and the warning. It said the suspension followed his refusal to sign the code unconditionally, and found no evidence that management had disclosed his identity as the reports’ author to colleagues. The complaints were made under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. In plain terms, the worker had to show that his reports caused the treatment he challenged; the WRC found he had not done so.