Donegal County Council was ordered to pay Fionnuala Bonner €45,000 after a Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator found that her dismissal was discriminatory because of her pregnancy. The decision, dated 15 April 2024, also found that the council penalised her under fixed-term work law.
Bonner worked for the council under successive fixed-term contracts, including a Water Pro role the council said depended on temporary EU project funding. She said her duties continued beyond the funding and that work was reassigned after her employment ended. The adjudicator found that the council did not rebut the presumption of discrimination after Bonner’s pregnancy was followed by the end of her employment while her duties continued.
The adjudicator also found that Bonner was entitled to a contract of indefinite duration and that the penalisation complaint was well founded. The €45,000 compensation was for the effects of discriminatory dismissal; no separate compensation was awarded for penalisation because the claims arose from overlapping facts. In plain terms, the council could not justify ending her employment on the facts found by the adjudicator.