The Workplace Relations Commission awarded an Irish Water employee €35,000 after finding that she was discriminated against on gender and family-status grounds when she returned from maternity leave. Adjudication Officer Niamh O’Carroll Kelly dated the decision 20 November 2017.
The employee had worked from Cork two days a week before her leave. On returning, she said she was told to work in Dublin five days a week, had little or no work and was pressed to relocate or resign. Irish Water did not attend the hearing. The WRC found that her post-leave role was substantially different and less favourable: she had no projects or reports and was pressured to work in Dublin or resign. It found discrimination in her conditions of employment and awarded compensation for the distress caused. Her separate Maternity Protection Act complaint was withdrawn.