The Irish Labour Court has ruled that an employee without a disability cannot claim discrimination when treated less favourably than a person with a disability.
The complainant, Brendan Lyon, was an educational coordinator in the Navan Educational Centre. As a result of restructuring, the number of coordinators reduced from four to two and each employee was required to reapply for their position. One of the four coordinators fell seriously ill and was unable to attend the interview. Nonetheless that candidate was subsequently appointed to one of the roles, while Mr Lyon was unsuccessful in securing a position. Mr Lyon argued that this went beyond reasonable accommodation and discriminated against him as he was “being treated less favourably because he does not have a disability”.
Mr. Lyon was unsuccessful in the WRC as an employer has “wide latitude in giving a disabled employee special treatment or facilities”. Mr Lyon appealed to the Labour Court relying on Kalanke v Freie Hansestadt Bremen where the European Court of Justice ruled that automatic priority given to women in recruitment breached the principle of equal treatment. The Court distinguished this case on the facts as both men and women could bring claims under the gender ground. Instead, the Court relied on section 6(1) of the Employment Equality Acts, which states that discrimination is less favourable treatment based on discriminatory grounds that exists, existed, may exist in the future, is imputed to a person, or arises by that person’s association with a person who falls within one of the protected grounds. As Mr Lyon did not have a disability and could not satisfy any of these criteria, his claim did not succeed.
Click here for the decision in Navan Education Centre t/a National Support Service v Brendan Lyon.