The Workplace Relations Commission awarded Paul Flanagan €20,000 after finding that Holbury Limited Safe-stride unfairly dismissed him while he was away for residential treatment. The decision was dated 28 November 2022.
Flanagan had worked for the company since 2010. He began a planned 20-week treatment course in July 2020, and said he expected to return to work afterwards. The company said his position would be assigned to someone else and that he could contact it about alternative work after treatment.
The respondent called no evidence, so Flanagan’s account was uncontested. The adjudicator found that he had not resigned and that the company later treated his absence as a resignation, although this had not been stated before the course began. Flanagan had withdrawn his separate Employment Equality Act complaint; the unfair dismissal complaint was well founded. The award was compensation because the relationship had broken down.