Bus Éireann Ordered to Pay €40,000: A Warning for Employers Handling Workplace Complaints

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) decision involving a long-serving Bus Éireann employee has highlighted the risks employers face when workplace complaints and ongoing legal proceedings overlap.

Bus Éireann was ordered to pay €40,000 in compensation after the WRC found that an employee had been penalised for raising workplace health and safety concerns.

The decision serves as a reminder that employers must continue to follow their own workplace procedures, even when separate legal proceedings involving an employee are ongoing.

What happened?

George Moloney had worked for Bus Éireann for more than 40 years, having joined the company as an apprentice coach-maker in 1984.

His work involved physically demanding duties, including the extensive use of vibrating and pneumatic tools.

In 2023, he was diagnosed with a hand condition which he believed was connected to prolonged exposure to these tools. He subsequently remained on long-term sick leave.

His solicitors wrote to Bus Éireann raising concerns about workplace health and safety and alleging that the prolonged use of vibrating tools amounted to an unsafe system of work.

Mr Moloney also pursued separate personal injury proceedings.

However, a dispute arose when Bus Éireann did not progress his application for ill-health retirement while those legal proceedings remained ongoing.

What did the WRC decide?

The WRC found that the letter sent by Mr Moloney’s solicitors constituted a protected act under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.

Adjudicator Úna Glazier-Farmer concluded that Bus Éireann had penalised the employee by preventing his application for ill-health retirement from progressing through the company’s established procedures because of the ongoing civil proceedings.

Importantly, the WRC did not determine that Mr Moloney was automatically entitled to ill-health retirement.

The issue was that he had been denied the opportunity to have his application properly considered.

The WRC ordered Bus Éireann to:

• Pay €40,000 in compensation.
• Process the employee’s ill-health retirement application within 10 weeks.
• Consider the application under its normal procedures, without allowing the civil proceedings to influence that process.

What can employers learn from this decision?

1. Workplace complaints must not result in penalisation

Employees who raise protected workplace health and safety concerns have legal protections against penalisation.

Employers should ensure that decisions concerning an employee’s working arrangements, entitlements or access to established procedures are not adversely influenced by the employee having raised those concerns.

2. Follow your own policies and procedures

Having a workplace policy is not enough if it is not followed in practice.

In this case, the employee was denied access to the established ill-health retirement assessment process.

Employers should apply their procedures consistently and ensure that any departure from those procedures can be properly justified.

3. Keep separate processes separate

A workplace health and safety complaint, an employee’s medical circumstances and ongoing legal proceedings may all involve the same individual.

However, that does not automatically mean that every related workplace process should be placed on hold.

Employers should carefully consider whether there is a legitimate reason to delay a particular process and avoid linking decisions in a way that could amount to penalisation.

4. Ensure decisions are fair and properly documented

Where workplace decisions involve sensitive complaints, long-term absence or potential legal proceedings, employers should maintain clear records of the reasons behind those decisions.

Independent consideration may also be appropriate where there is a potential conflict or concern about impartiality.

Practical steps for employers

This case provides an opportunity for employers and HR professionals to review how they manage overlapping workplace issues.

Before delaying or changing an established process, employers should consider:

• Has the employee raised a protected workplace complaint?
• Are we following the relevant company policies?
• Would this decision have been made in the same way if the employee had not raised the complaint?
• Are the reasons for the decision documented?
• Should an independent person review the matter?

Taking these steps can help employers identify potential problems before they develop into further disputes.

How Employment Matters can help

Workplace complaints can become more complicated when health and safety concerns, long-term absence and legal proceedings overlap.

Employment Matters provides independent workplace investigations, mediation and practical dispute resolution support for employers and professional advisers.

Where an independent assessment or structured approach to resolving a workplace dispute is required, we can help organisations identify an appropriate way forward.

Contact Employment Matters to request a call and discuss your workplace situation.

Case reference: George Moloney v Bus Éireann, ADJ-00059707.

This article is provided for general information and does not constitute legal advice.