The Workplace Relations Commission awarded Aisling Ryan €3,500 after finding that Pharmacy O'Riain Limited had not shown a fair process for selecting her for redundancy. The decision, dated 18 July 2022, also found her family-status discrimination and collective redundancy complaints not well founded.
Ryan, a pharmacy sales assistant, said she faced an unfair scoring and consultation process and that her family status influenced her treatment. The company denied discrimination and said redundancies followed a business downturn and a selection matrix applied to employees at risk.
The adjudicator found a lack of transparency in the scoring and said the company had not demonstrated a fair selection process. Ryan had scored 26 out of 55, and the adjudicator reduced compensation to reflect insufficient evidence of efforts to limit her loss. The WRC ordered €3,500 compensation for unfair dismissal.
The family-status complaint failed because Ryan did not establish that her family status caused less favourable treatment. The collective redundancy complaint failed because five redundancies among 70 employees did not meet the statutory definition.