PWD2622

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No.: ADJ-00040345 (CA-00051629-001)

BACKGROUND:

This is an appeal of an Adjudication Officer’s Decision made pursuant to the Payment of Wages Act,The appeal was heard by the Labour Court in accordance with Section 44 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 on 14 July 2026.

The following is the Court's Decision:

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DECISION:

Background to the Appeal

This is an appeal by Ms Kristina Viksna (‘the Complainant’) from a decision of an Adjudication Officer (ADJ-00040345/CA-00051629-001, dated 10 February 2025) under the Payment of Wages 1991 (‘the Act’). Notice of Appeal was received in the Court on 5 March 2025. The Court heard the appeal in Dublin on 14 July 2026.

The Factual Background

The Complainant was employed as a General Operative by Cardinal Health Ireland Manufacturing Limited (‘the Respondent’) between November 2005 and 27 April 2022.

The Complainant, while working on her evening shift on 15 February 2022, appears to have experienced a severe reaction to an alcohol-based cleansing agent that was routinely used in her work environment. This resulted in her being brought to the local hospital in Tullamore for assessment and treatment. She was not admitted and allowed to go home later that evening. She informed the Respondent the following morning that she was fit to return to work and that this had been confirmed by her own GP. However, the Respondent notified her, by telephone on the 16th and by letter of the same date, that it would have to assess the events that had occurred on the 15th from a health and safety perspective and that it would require medical confirmation of her ability to use and work with the alcohol spray going forward before she could return to the workplace. The Respondent organised an assessment of the Complainant by its occupational health specialist, Dr Gleeson. Having reviewed Dr Gleeson’s subsequent report, dated 9 March 2022, with the Complainant, the Respondent terminated the Complainant’s employment on grounds of capacity with effect from 27 April 2022.

Following detailed correspondence between the Parties (including correspondence with the Complainant’s Solicitors) in the period following the incident of 15 February 2022, the Respondent having determined that the Complainant had exhausted her entitlements under the company’s sick pay scheme, agreed -nevertheless - to pay the Complainant’s wages from 21 February to the date of receipt of Dr Gleeson’s report “on an exceptional basis”.

The Complaint

The Complainant referred the within complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission on 11 July 2022. In the narrative section of the Workplace Relations Commission complaint form, the Complainant outlined her complaint as follows:

“I was not allowed to return to work for the 16, 17 & 18 February 2022 despite not been [sic] certified sick.”

Discussion and Decision

It is common case that the Complainant had communicated to the Respondent that she was both willing and able to

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attend for her scheduled shift on 16 February 2022 following the incident of the previous evening which had necessitated a hospital visit. It is also common case that the Respondent made a unilateral decision to compel the Complainant to absent herself from the workplace at that time pending an occupational health review, although she had been declared fit to attend work by her own GP. After significant correspondence between the Parties, the Respondent agreed ‘on an exceptional basis’ to resume payment to the Complainant from 21 February, pending her referral to Dr Gleeson.

No cogent explanation was offered to the Court by the Respondent to explain why its decision was to resume payment of the Complainant’s wages from 21 February and not from 16 February other than to say that she had exhausted the company’s sick pay scheme. The reference to the sick pay scheme is of no relevance in the Court’s opinion in circumstances where neither the Complainant nor her GP asserted that she was not fit to attend work from the 16th onwards.

In the circumstances, therefore, the Court finds that the Complainant’s wages for 16, 17 and 18 February 2022 are properly payable to her. The amount claimed is €405.00 gross. The Court directs the Respondent to make a payment in this amount to the Complainant under the Act.

The appeal succeeds and the decision of the Adjudication Officer is set aside.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
CC	______________________
27/07/2026	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to Ms Ceola Cronin, Court Secretary.

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