Top law firm ordered to pay solicitor €5,000 over long Covid ‘discrimination’

Law firm Mason Hayes and Curran has been ordered to retrain its managers on disability policies and pay €5,000 compensation to a dismissed solicitor suffering from long Covid and depression following a ruling that it discriminated against him.

The company, one of Ireland’s largest law practices with a turnover of €114m last year, has also been given three months to provide training to senior managers on its anti-discrimination policies by the Workplace Relations Commission.

It follows a finding that Mason Hayes and Curran LLP failed to consider whether it could assist senior associate solicitor Oisín Gourley with reasonable accommodation for long Covid and depression before deciding he had failed his probation and dismissing him last year.

In a decision published today, the employment tribunal rejected further allegations of discriminatory harassment, victimisation and dismissal made by Mr Gourley under the Employment Equality Act 1998 against the firm.

Mr Gourley had claimed his dismissal from the company after six months’ probation in August 2023 was linked to his disabilities and that having filed a grievance alleging disability discrimination, acts of harassment or victimisation continued until October that year as it was investigated.

John Cleary of SIPTU, appearing for the employee, submitted that his client was experiencing “a lot of fatigue” and failing to retain or process information during his time with the firm – leaving him “anxious about making mistakes and about the quality of his work” and feeling “overwhelmed”.

The law firm’s barrister, Rosemary Mallon BL, submitted that the client Mr Gourley had been hired to look after had expressed concerns about the handling of its files in June 2023. However, it held off on making a formal warning under the service level agreement as it was the first time in nine years there had been an issue, she submitted.

“The situation was not tenable,” Ms Mallon submitted, as Mr Gourley’s workload was “half” that of others on his team.

Catherine Allen, a partner in the firm and Mr Gourley’s line manager as head of its public, regulatory and investigations department, told Mr Gourley on August 9 that she would be bringing a HR representative to a planned weekly “catch-up” meeting the following day, it was submitted. Mr Gourley phoned her asking whether he was facing dismissal and stating that he wanted to get his trade union involved, Mr Cleary submitted.

In an email that evening, Ms Allen told Mr Gourley that she recalled the complainant disclosing Long Covid to her, but that the worker had not sought reasonable accommodation for the condition. She added that it was the first time he had mentioned depression.

Mr Gourley wrote in a replying email: “I believe that I should be allowed more time for the treatment of my depression and long Covid to improve my performance and also be provided with some assistive technology”.

He was dismissed at the meeting the following day, the tribunal heard.

Mr Gourley’s position was that he told Ms Allen about anxiety and depression earlier in the summer and that the alleged performance issues were “exaggerated and not the real reason” for his dismissal.

Ms Allen’s evidence was that she had decided not to extend Mr Gourley’s probation following a meeting with the client on July 19, 2023, but held off on telling him this because they were both due to take annual leave. She explained that no probation extension was possible for Mr Gourley because the client “would not work with him”.

In her decision, adjudicator Marie Flynn wrote that the company had been obliged to examine Mr Gourley’s fitness for the role in line with equality law after he set out his disabilities and asked for accommodation.

The move to dismiss Mr Gourley on competence grounds “was taken in the absence of any assessment of his capabilities and whether reasonable accommodation could be put in place to address his shortcomings”, the adjudicator added.

Ms Flynn declared that aspect of Mr Gourley’s complaint to be “well founded”, ordering Mason Hayes and Curran to pay him €5,000 in compensation. She also gave the law firm a deadline of three months to “review its policy on reasonable accommodation and provide training to all of its employees in a staff management role”.

However, she concluded that Mr Gourley had not suffered a discriminatory dismissal and rejected further allegations of harassment and victimisation, including in connection with a grievance process which followed his dismissal.

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