The Labour Court dismissed nurse Sheila O’Rahilly’s appeal against a Rights Commissioner’s decision on her complaint of health-and-safety penalisation. The determination was signed on 14 December 2011. O’Rahilly worked at Kerry General Hospital and said disciplinary threats followed her complaints about staffing and workplace safety.
HSE South said the investigation concerned a patient-transfer incident and was unrelated to her complaints. The Court found that O’Rahilly had made health-and-safety complaints and that she was threatened with disciplinary action. It concluded that the threats arose from her conduct during the incident, rather than from her complaints, and did not amount to penalisation under the Act. The appeal was dismissed.