The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found that the HSE had not victimised Alan Walsh, rejecting his complaint under the Equal Status Act. The decision was dated 20 May 2024.
Walsh said the HSE failed to share information about a Parliamentary Question and delayed or mishandled his Freedom of Information requests after he had made an earlier Equal Status complaint. The HSE accepted there had been delays and that it had failed to respond promptly to his request about the Parliamentary Question. It denied that these failings amounted to victimisation.
The adjudicator described the HSE’s information provision as extremely tardy but found no victimisation. To establish his complaint, Walsh had to show that he was treated less favourably than someone who had not made a complaint; the adjudicator noted that he had identified no such comparator. The HSE had undertaken to provide the requested Parliamentary Question information. The WRC’s decision concerned whether the HSE victimised Walsh under the Equal Status Act, rather than whether its responses were timely.