A disability centre has asked an employment tribunal to impose reporting restrictions due to “very sensitive issues” after being accused of penalising a worker for raising safety complaints.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) noted on Friday that a previous “agreement” on a series of penalisation and discrimination claims brought by a former employee of the Delta Centre CLG in Carlow “didn’t come to fruition”.
Statutory complaints brought by the worker, Sandra Browne, under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, the Industrial Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 and the Employment Equality Act 1998 against the disability services organisation are now set to proceed to a full hearing later this year.
Adjudication officer Brian Dolan noted that Ms Browne was no longer represented by the legal team which had appeared on her behalf at a previous hearing.
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“The former representative for the complainant and the respondent said they had reached an agreement; that didn’t come to fruition,” he said.
“The complainant had three weeks or a month or so to say the [withdrawal of] complaint had been agreed – the complainant said she wished to continue on,” he said.
“I draw no inference, I make no comment, other than that the matter is proceeding to a hearing,” he said. He noted that the Delta Centre’s legal filings ran to “1,000 pages” and that there was a “large booklet” of material from the complainant before him as well.
The tribunal heard Ms Browne was dismissed from her employment on April 29th, 2024. Prior to her dismissal, Mr Dolan noted, she had referred complaints of disability discrimination, as well as penalisation in connection with a health and safety matter and penalisation in connection with “trade union membership”.
Counsel for the employer, Úna Clifford, said her belief was that the WRC would need three days to hear the matter. She said the respondent wished to present the tribunal with the details of a number of investigations that it carried out and that she had “a number of witnesses” to call.
“I’d appreciate as much time as possible,” Ms Browne told Mr Dolan. “As I’m self-represented, I’m not here to start creating a narrative, but to put forward as much as possible, and let you draw your own conclusions,” she said.
At the outset of Friday’s hearing Ms Clifford, for the employer, said: “A number of allegations made by Ms Browne involve some very sensitive issues regarding service users.”
“Some of what might be reported would cause significant upset to the service users’ families. We would contend there’s a very significant issue at play here [and] would politely be requesting anonymisation,” she said.
Mr Dolan said: “I’ll reserve my position.” He said he would consider the matter in advance of the hearing. “Today, we’re not in camera. It’s not anonymous for the time being. This morning’s hearing is in public.”
After this, a member of the centre’s management spoke up, pointed out that there were journalists present at the hearing and asked that the members of the press be “identified”.
Mr Dolan told him the WRC’s hearings were effectively “open court” and that journalists regularly attended.
The case has been adjourned pending the arrangement of hearing dates at the WRC’s offices in Carlow.
