HSD267

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00055174 (CA-00067200-002)

BACKGROUND:

The Complainant appealed the Decision of the Adjudication Officer to the Labour Court in accordance with Section 29(1) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Acts, 2005 to 2014.  A Labour Court hearing took place on 25 June 2026.

The following is the Decision of the Court:-

DECISION:

Background to the Appeal

This is an appeal by Ms Caroline Condon (‘the Complainant’) from a decision of an Adjudication Officer (ADJ-00055174 CA-00067200-002, dated 15 July 2025) under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (‘the Act’). Notice of Appeal was received in the Court on 8 August 2025. The Court heard the appeal in Cork on 25 June 2026.

Decision at First Instance

The Adjudication Officer declined jurisdiction to consider the Complainant’s substantive complaint having found that the complaint had been presented outside of the statutory timeframe for doing so.

Cognisable Period

The within complaint was received by the Workplace Relations Commission on 6 November 2024. The relevant period, therefore, for consideration in assessing a contravention of the Act is 7 May 2024 to 6 November 2024.

Relevant Factual Background

The Complainant was employed by the HSE (‘the Respondent’) on a temporary basis up until 23 September 2022. Her claim is that she was penalised within the meaning of section 27 of the Act when the Respondent refused to redeploy her in 2022 allegedly because of an unreported accident she had in 2018 which resulted in a serious injury.

The Law

Section 27(1) of the Act provides:

“(1) In this section “penalisation” includes any act or omission by an employer or a person acting on behalf of an employer that affects, to his or her detriment, an employee with respect to any term or condition of his or her employment.”

Sections 41(6) and 41(8) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, respectively, provide:

“(6) Subject to subsection (8), an adjudication officer shall not entertain a complaint referred to him or her under this section if it has been presented to the Director General after the expiration of the period of 6 months beginning on the date of the contravention to which the complaint relates.”

“(8) An adjudication officer may entertain a complaint or dispute to which this section applies presented or referred to the Director General after the expiration of the period referred to in subsection (6) or (7) (but not later than 6 months after such expiration), as the case may be, if he or she is satisfied that the failure to present the complaint or refer the dispute within that period was due to reasonable cause.”

Application of the Law to the Facts

The Complainant submitted her complaint under the Act on 6 November 2024. The Complainant had ceased to be an employee of the Respondent on 23 September 2022, almost two years prior to the submission of her complaint. Having regard to section 27(1) of the Act, and to section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, the Complainant did not have any standing to bring the within complaint as her employment with the Respondent had terminated in excess of one year before she initiated her complaint of penalisation. The complaint cannot, therefore, be considered under the Act.

Decision

The appeal fails and the decision of the Adjudication Officer is upheld.

The Court so decides.

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

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Determination should be in writing and addressed to Ms Ceola Cronin, Court Secretary.