The individual was withdrawn from the sick pay scheme in February 2014, after the employer refused their request to be accompanied by an IMPACT representative to an attendance review meeting.

The Labour Court has recommended that the employer should now consider the individual to have been restored to the sick pay scheme from 18th May 2014, and to pay the sick pay due between that date and when they returned to work in August of the same year.

IMPACT assistant general secretary Shay Clinton said, “This member is now satisfied that the Labour Court upheld the fact that she should not have been removed from the sick pay scheme for such a lengthy period. The Labour Court obviously took into account that she was not allowed to be accompanied to a meeting she believed could have had long-term implications for her future in the workplace”

Shay added, “I’ve asked IMPACT’s Health and Welfare national secretary, Eamonn Donnelly, to raise the issue of attendance protocols at these type of meetings within the HSE in order to ensure an incident like this will not happen again.”