The Labour Court set aside a €55,000 award to Caroline O'Connor after the Irish Prison Service’s appeal succeeded. In its determination dated 3 January 2024, the Court found the Service had not discriminated against her or failed to provide reasonable accommodation under the Employment Equality Act.
O'Connor, a Prison Administration and Support Officer 1 at Cork Prison, had asked to work from home while unable to attend the prison. The Court found that the colleagues she cited were not appropriate comparators: one worked for headquarters, while the other qualified for Covid Leave, which O'Connor did not. It found she had not established facts supporting an inference of direct discrimination.
The Court also found that key parts of her role required on-site work and access to prisoner files and the Prison Information Management System. The duties she proposed doing from home would have amounted to a different job, and the Court said reasonable accommodation did not require the Service to redeploy her. It set aside the Adjudication Officer’s decision, which had found both complaints well founded and awarded €55,000.