The Workplace Relations Commission awarded Patricia Higgins €15,000 after finding her dismissal was penalisation for making a safety, health and welfare complaint. Adjudication Officer Louise Boyle’s decision was dated 20 February 2025.
The WRC also awarded Higgins €5,000 after finding Cruinniu Bia Limited treated her less favourably as a part-time worker by removing her regular workspace without objective justification. Higgins had worked two days a week, an arrangement she said accommodated childcare and care for her father.
Higgins said she raised safety concerns after being placed beneath roof work involving an angle grinder. The company denied she had made a protected safety complaint and said the redundancy followed restructuring and her rejection of alternative roles. The WRC dismissed her family-status discrimination complaint, finding she had not established a prima facie case. Her unfair dismissal complaint was withdrawn.