The Workplace Relations Commission found that Quest Brook Limited discriminated against Niamh Gargan by failing to discuss health and safety leave during her pregnancy. It awarded her €1,000 compensation for that breach and a further €1,000 for the company’s failure to provide written employment terms.
In a decision dated 7 June 2023, adjudication officer Catherine Byrne also found a Payment of Wages Act complaint not well founded. The WRC said wages were not properly payable while Gargan was on lay-off and absent from work.
Gargan worked about 20 hours a week as a warehouse picker, earning €12 an hour. She told her manager she was pregnant in March 2020 and was advised to take two weeks off. The warehouse later closed during Covid-19 restrictions. Gargan said she was not called back because she was pregnant; the company said it had concerns about lifting and Covid-19 risks.
The WRC found the company had not dismissed her and accepted its explanation for not calling her back. But it found the company should have consulted her about her options, including health and safety leave. The decision therefore found discrimination on that point, while rejecting the claim that she had been dismissed because of her pregnancy.