The Workplace Relations Commission found Brendan Gill’s disability discrimination complaint against Lmetb, the Louth Meath Education & Training Board, was not well founded. The decision was dated 20 June 2022.
Gill, a teacher with severe asthma, said the board failed to provide reasonable accommodation because he could not wear a Covid face mask, and that he was harassed. The adjudication officer accepted that his asthma was a disability under the Employment Equality Act 1998.
The officer found that Lmetb allowed Gill to work without a mask, providing reasonable accommodation up to 15 September 2020. The decision considered events after that date outside the period it could assess.
On a 15 September verbal exchange with a caretaker, the officer found the conversation unpleasant but not a pattern of deliberate or ongoing harassment, and said the school principal had defused the situation quickly. The officer also found no harassment or discrimination in a separate dispute involving students removing their masks.
The WRC concluded that no discrimination took place in the period it considered, and the complaint failed. Gill received no compensation.