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THE WORKPLACE RELATIONS Commission (WRC) has launched a stinging rebuke of An Garda Síochána for how the organisation treated a garda who was suffering from the mental impact of her workplace.

The case centres around a female garda involved in the case who had sought to report sick due to work related stress.

She had complained to the WRC that the applicable policies and procedures were properly applied. The body awarded the garda €10,000 compensation and made orders to correct the behaviour of garda management.

In the body’s findings An Garda Síochána has been anonymised as “a policing service”. The garda’s name has also been omitted, but The Journal has confirmed the contents of the judgment relate to the garda organisation.

The complainant said that “a sequence of procedural failures rather than a single administrative oversight” by senior garda officers were to blame.

The garda had been referred in 2020 to the Chief Medical Officer but no appointment to meet the doctor, who oversees the health of members of An Garda Síochána, was organised.

The WRC found that this was a failure by garda management because it could have dealt with the problem at an earlier stage. The organisation ignored a Directive advising them to do this

The WRC found: “When the worker was later certified unfit for duty due to work-related stress by her GP, the structured investigation required under the Directive was not carried out in the manner envisaged by the policy.

“Instead, a managerial view was formed without the completion of a proper investigation process or the compilation of a full investigative record.”

The WRC aid this was a significant omission by the policing organisation in the wake of case law precedent established in a previous High Court judgment. This case, Gao v Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, found that there must be a full investigation into the injury on duty and work related stress classification.

This issue was “further compounded”, the WRC found, because of internal management directions to its senior officers.

The ruling found that there were clear instructions for how to address the case but that “local management” ignored these.

“When the worker sought to challenge that decision, her appeal, lodged in April 2024 after she obtained further information through FOI [Freedom of Information], remained without any response for over a year.

“This prolonged lack of engagement compounded the uncertainty surrounding her status and extended the financial consequences of the disputed classification,” the ruling added.

It was further compounded that when the garda sought to use the internal disputes resolution procedures to address the handling of her case, garda management declined to engage under that framework.

The ruling found that this refusal meant that the only recourse for the garda was to seek assistance from the WRC.

“The impact on the worker has been significant. She has experienced financial loss, prolonged uncertainty, and additional stress at a time when she was already dealing with a medically certified work-related condition.

“The manner in which her case was handled undermined her confidence that the systems designed to support members in difficulty would operate fairly and effectively,” the ruling added.

The WRC found that the treatment of the garda was such that An Garda Síochána abandoned agreed processes, and internal mechanisms.

The WRC ruling recommended that An Garda Síochána addresses the issues identified in the case around sick leave within 42 days.

The body also recommended that the organisation pay €10,000 in compensation to the garda in respect to the failure to process the worker’s application in a timely fashion and because it failed to address the worker’s grievances.

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