Bus Éireann worker awarded €40,000 after medical retirement dispute
The WRC ordered Bus Éireann to pay George Moloney €40,000 after finding he was penalised over a personal injury claim.
· The Island · 2 min read
The Workplace Relations Commission ordered Bus Éireann on 28 August to pay coach-maker George Moloney €40,000 after finding he was penalised over a personal injury claim.
What happened
Moloney has worked for Bus Éireann for more than 40 years. He claimed that decades of using power tools at work had injured him.
The dispute centred on his attempt to seek medical retirement. The WRC heard that Bus Éireann did not follow its own policy to assess whether Moloney qualified for early retirement on health grounds because he was pursuing a personal injuries case.
Adjudicator Úna Glazier-Farmer ordered the company to pay the compensation. The award was described as compensation for penalisation.
The case concerns the treatment of an individual employee, but the finding also puts the focus on how employers apply internal retirement and health procedures when a workplace injury claim is under way.
Why it matters
Bus Éireann is a large public transport employer, and the ruling gives its workforce a clear example of the potential cost of departing from an established workplace policy. It also shows that making a personal injury claim does not remove an employee’s right to have a separate medical-retirement assessment handled under the employer’s own process.
For employers, the practical issue is procedural. A policy must be followed consistently, particularly when an employee’s health, retirement prospects and legal claim overlap.