The Workplace Relations Commission ordered Centum Engineering Services Limited to pay Dean Kerley €7,000 compensation after finding the company penalised him for reporting a workplace safety incident. The decision was dated 30 May 2022. The adjudicator found Kerley had made a protected disclosure and that his dismissal was linked to it.
Kerley said he was dismissed after reporting that a supervisor from a third-party company had kicked him during an altercation at work. The company gave other reasons for ending his employment, including client complaints about his attitude, bypassing the employer and failing to follow instructions. The adjudicator found those reasons spurious and unsubstantiated, and said the dismissal occurred within 24 hours of Kerley’s report.
The adjudicator concluded the dismissal was an act of penalisation connected with the protected disclosure. In setting compensation, the adjudicator considered the intended length of Kerley’s contract and the respondent’s difficulty returning him to the third-party site.