WRC awards Care Worker €25,000 after finding sexual harassment

The Workplace Relations Commission awarded an anonymised Care Worker €25,000 for sexual harassment by a colleague and €15,000 for constructive dismissal by Costern Unlimited Company. The decision was dated 12 July 2024. The WRC found that the employer had not shown that effective policies or relevant training were in place when the harassment occurred. It also found that the worker was constructively dismissed after the harassment and the absence of preventive policies left her expecting further incidents. The WRC took insufficient mitigation of loss into account when setting the dismissal compensation. Two other complaints were not well founded: the worker’s attendance at an interview about a complaint against her was not penalisation, and her victimisation claim was not particularised or detailed.