The Workplace Relations Commission has ordered NUA Healthcare to pay assistant support worker Tracey Sage-Gallagher €10,000 after finding that a flawed pregnancy risk assessment led to discrimination on gender and family-status grounds. The decision was dated 21 June 2023.
Sage-Gallagher said that after she told the company she was pregnant, she was removed from her usual care role and offered an administrative job in Naas. She said the transfer changed her hours, removed her shift-lead allowance and brought extra travel and childcare costs. NUA Healthcare said it offered the role because she wanted to keep working, and that health and safety leave was the only other option available at the time.
The company accepted that the first risk assessment had been done by an unqualified staff member without Sage-Gallagher's input; a second assessment was carried out with her on 4 August 2021. The adjudication officer found the initial assessment and resulting disruption and losses amounted to less favourable treatment. The complaint also partly succeeded on the “other” ground because she was not told about vacancies while absent. The officer did not find discrimination in the restriction of her email access or the failure to provide payslips.
The WRC also directed the company to put in place a policy notifying staff who are absent from work about promotional opportunities and vacancies.