WRC rejects Emmet Kelly’s workplace safety penalisation complaint

The Workplace Relations Commission found a workplace safety penalisation complaint by Emmet Kelly against Bord Na Mona Recycling Limited Bord Na Mona was not well founded. The decision was dated 8 March 2024. Kelly said an unfair disciplinary process followed an accident at work and amounted to penalisation under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The respondent said he fell from a refuse collection vehicle while on duty. During the investigation, Kelly said he might not have followed the four-points-of-contact rule and might have been using a mobile phone. The employer issued him a final written warning, later reduced on appeal to a written warning. The adjudicator found that Kelly had not initiated a protected act covered by the Act, so his complaint could not succeed.