Bus Éireann coach-maker penalised for taking legal proceedings for injury awarded compensation
Gordon Deegan
Bus Éireann has been ordered to pay €40,000 in compensation to a long-serving coach-maker for penalising him for taking High Court personal injury legal proceedings against the State transport firm.
George Moloney has worked for Bus Éireann for more than 40 years and at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Adjudicator Úna Glazier-Farmer has ordered Bus Éireann to pay Moloney the €40,000 for penalising him by failing to follow its own policy and assess Moloney’s eligibility for early retirement due to ill health.
Glazier Farmer said that the evidence was clear that Bus Éireann adopted and maintained a position that Moloney’s eligibility for consideration for retirement on grounds of ill health would not be progressed while civil legal proceedings remained live.
Glazier Farmer stated that a letter sent by Moloney’s solicitors in August 2023, which raised concerns about workplace health and safety concerns constituted a protected act under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005
Moloney commenced working for Bus Éireann in 1984 as an apprentice coach-maker and continued to work for Bus Éireann at the date of the WRC hearing on August 12th of this year.
Moloney’s role involves physically demanding work refurbishing buses and trailers and the extensive use of vibrating and pneumatic tools, including air saws and pneumatic knives.
Following medical investigations in 2023, Moloney was diagnosed with a hand condition which he understood to be attributable to prolonged exposure to vibrating tools during his employment.
Occupational health personnel expressed the view that the diagnosis was consistent with prolonged exposure to vibrating tools and Moloney has remained on long-term sick leave since 2023.
Moloney subsequently instructed solicitors who, on his behalf, wrote to Bus Éireann in August 2023 alleging that the requirement that he use vibrating tools over a prolonged period constituted an unsafe system of work.
Moloney - represented by solicitor, Ronan Cunningham of Hamilton Turner Solicitors, stated that despite repeated enquiries, there was little engagement from Bus Éireann and no substantive update regarding retirement or alternative employment.
Moloney’s evidence was that Bus Éireann’s refusal or failure to progress his retirement on grounds of ill health was directly connected to his raising of health and safety concerns through the initiation of legal proceedings.
Moloney stated that the uncertainty surrounding his employment status, the absence of a resolution regarding ill-health retirement, and the loss of income had caused him significant financial hardship and mental distress.
Bus Éireann denied that Mr Moloney was penalised.
At the hearing, Moloney maintained that, had he not pursued legal proceedings, he believed he would have been medically retired.
In her findings, Glazier Farmer stated that the detriment suffered by Moloney was not a mere procedural irregularity.
Glazier Farmer stated that as a consequence of initiating legal proceedings, Mr Moloney was denied access to the process established under Bus Éireann’s Welfare Scheme, including the possibility of referral to the Board of Trustees for independent consideration of his case.
Glazier Farmer stated that this position was repeatedly affirmed by Bus Éireann and remained unchanged following both the grievance and appeal processes.
She stated that there was a distinct absence of independence in this decision-making process.
Glazier Farmer stated that the penalisation was therefore directly connected to the protected act and had significant financial implications for Moloney.
She stated that while it is not possible to conclude that Moloney would ultimately have been granted ill-health retirement, he was denied the opportunity to have his case considered in accordance with Bus Éireann’s own procedures.
Glazier Farmer stated that while it is acknowledged that Bus Éireann has a right to defend itself in any proceedings before the courts, that right co-exists with the rights of the employee and cannot be done to the detriment of a Bus Éireann employee which was Moloney in this instance.b
