St Patrick’s Guild was ordered to pay Barbara Johnston €7,500 after an Equality Officer found it failed to provide reasonable accommodation for her disability. In a decision dated 15 August 2014, Equality Officer Hugh Lonsdale found the Guild should have excused Johnston from physical work after receiving a medical certificate. It later assigned her filing and shutter duties without checking whether she could manage them or seeking medical advice.
The Guild said it had adjusted Johnston’s duties and denied that later events were connected to disability or a protected action. The officer found a separate victimisation complaint was not well founded because there was no evidence Johnston had made a discrimination complaint or taken another protected action before the alleged treatment.