Gary Prendergast was awarded €15,000 after the Workplace Relations Commission found that Park West Utilities Management Limited discriminated against him because of his age by leaving him to use a hand cart instead of replacing his broken electric cart. The WRC decision was dated 3 April 2024.
Prendergast had worked as a maintenance general operative since 2007 and said he pushed the hand cart for about 15 kilometres a day collecting leaves and rubbish. The company said repairing the cart was uneconomic because it would have to be sent to Germany. The adjudicator found that the hand cart was more physically demanding and that the failure to provide motorised equipment significantly disadvantaged Prendergast because of his age.
The WRC directed the company to pay compensation equivalent to about six months’ wages. A separate grievance over a 2021 written warning was outside the time limit and was not considered.