The Workplace Relations Commission awarded Ryan McMullan €28,000 after finding Dallan & Co. Mechanical Services Ltd. penalised him for raising a health-and-safety concern. The decision was dated 29 November 2022. It separately awarded him €1,366 over his employer’s handling of his statutory paternity leave.
McMullan said he was dismissed after refusing to use an SDS drill on concrete without an impactor, a device that helps prevent the drill bit jamming and the tool twisting in the user’s hand. The WRC found the drill posed a serious safety risk and that he was dismissed because he raised the concern. It did not find his separate complaint about prescription safety glasses was proved.
The WRC also found the employer’s reluctance to allow two weeks of paternity leave, and its failure to respond to his requests while he was on leave, amounted to unfair treatment and penalisation. It awarded €1,366, equal to two weeks’ remuneration, on that complaint. McMullan had been out of work for six months after his dismissal, with a financial loss of €18,441. The employer did not attend the second hearing.