WRC dismisses disability discrimination complaint against Medical Council

The Workplace Relations Commission dismissed an anonymised complainant’s disability discrimination complaint against the Medical Council, finding it had no jurisdiction to hear the case. The merits were not decided. The decision was dated 14 March 2024. The complainant said the Council’s investigation of his complaint about a medical practitioner was biased and unfair because of his disability. The Medical Council argued that its statutory decision-making was not a service under the Equal Status Act and was protected by judicial immunity. The officer found that the Council was carrying out a statutory adjudicative function and that its decision-making was not a service available to the public under the Act. The complaint was dismissed as misconceived; the disability discrimination allegation was not decided on its merits.