Cat rescue centre told to pay sacked worker €8,000 after refusal to allow work from home

A cat rescue charity has been ordered to pay €8,000 in compensation for constructively dismissing a worker with a disability who was refused permission to work from home on her return from sick leave after catching Covid-19.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) heard her boss sent a group message saying she was “supposedly sick” while she was off work in January 2021 — and that the charity took her work laptop and phone away when she objected to working from an unheated storage unit in winter.

Danielle Davis’s complaint against Phibsboro Cat Rescue under the Employment Equality Act 1998 was upheld by the WRC in a decision published on Thursday.

Ms Davis said she had volunteered for the charity since 2018 and took up a full-time role as animal carer and vet liaison in November 2020 — a role that involved arranging care and rescue for pets and working on the charity’s social media.

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She became ill with Covid-19 over Christmas that year and had to take sick leave — something she said her boss was “annoyed” about because there was “work that was not finished”.

Ms Davis gave evidence that she had depression and a weakened immune system — adding that the infection was “hard on her”.

During her sick leave, she said her boss stated in a group message that she was “supposedly sick”, a comment she said was hurtful.

Storage centre

Her doctor certified her as fit to return to work on January 28th, but stipulated that she “could not work in a cold place or do a high amount of exertion”.

Ms Davis told the tribunal her employer had no problem with this at first, but then said she would be based at a location described as a “storage centre”, a place she said was “very cold”, for her full 40-hour week.

She described the storage unit as a “shed” with no running water and a door that did not close properly and had to be heated with portable heaters that were absent.

The complainant said she told her employer the storage unit was “not an appropriate place to work” and that following this, her boss arranged for a volunteer to come and collect her work phone and laptop

She said no reason was given for stopping her working from home and that she was given no option except the storage unit.

Ms Davis said she “broke down” on February 1st when she saw her doctor and was signed off on work-related stress until the end of the month.

‘Refusing to work’

The tribunal noted a message on February 1st from the respondent to Ms Davis stating that she was “refusing to work”.

On February 23rd, the day after telling her boss her medical leave was being extended, she received notice of dismissal, she said.

Solicitor Barry Crushell for Phibsboro Cat Rescue, said Ms Davis was dismissed because she was “not a suitable fit for the organisation” and it had not been notified of her underlying medical condition during her employment.

In his decision adjudicating officer Kevin Baneham said the employee was dismissed because of a deteriorating relationship with the manager stemming from how the charity interacted with her disability and this amounted to discriminatory dismissal.