GP Faces €40,000 Payout for Failing to Engage with Elderly Receptionist The Irish Times reports that a general practitioner (GP) in Ireland has been ordered to pay €40,000 in compensation to a former receptionist who claimed she was not properly consulted about her working arrangements. The receptionist, who was nearly 50 years old at the time, had worked for the GP for over a decade. She had suffered from medical problems that affected her ability to perform certain tasks. According to the court, the GP failed to engage with the receptionist in a meaningful way about her work and how her medical condition could impact her job. This lack of engagement led to a “breakdown in the relationship” between the GP and the receptionist. The receptionist resigned from her position and brought a case to the Workplace Relations Commission. The Commission found that the GP had breached the Employment Equality Acts by failing to make reasonable accommodations for the receptionist’s disability and by not engaging with her in a meaningful way. The GP was ordered to pay the receptionist €40,000 in compensation. The Commission also ordered the GP to provide training to staff on disability discrimination and to implement a disability accommodation policy. This case highlights the importance of employers engaging with employees who have disabilities and making reasonable accommodations to ensure they are not discriminated against. It also serves as a reminder that employers have a duty to consult with employees about changes to their working arrangements, even when those changes are prompted by the employee’s medical condition.A doctor in Tullamore, County Offaly, faces a compensation payment of €40,000 to a receptionist who was not informed of the closure of the family practice where she had worked for nearly 50 years.A doctor in Tullamore, County Offaly, faces a compensation payment of €40,000 to a receptionist who was not informed of the closure of the family practice where she had worked for nearly 50 years. Margaret Dunne, the receptionist, filed a complaint with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 after Dr. Declan Scanlon, the GP, failed to respond to her inquiries about returning to work following the COVID-19 pandemic. Dunne began working at Dr. Scanlon’s practice in March 1973 and continued until March 2020, when she stayed home on medical advice due to the pandemic. When she attempted to return in July 2021, she did not receive a response from Dr. Scanlon. In October 2022, Dunne learned from a colleague that the practice was closing, but she had not been directly informed by Dr. Scanlon or given a termination notice or severance pay. Despite several attempts by the WRC to contact Dr. Scanlon, he did not appear at the hearing. The adjudicator, Marguerite Buckley, noted that Dr. Scanlon had closed the practice due to ill health and that the evidence showed the company had ceased operations. Buckley ruled that Dunne was entitled to a statutory redundancy payment based on her years of service, from April 1973 to October 2022, minus the break in service between March 2020 and July 2021. The payment, amounting to approximately €40,000, will be calculated by the Department of Social Protection based on Dunne’s PRSI payments.A GP practice has been ordered to pay €40,000 to a receptionist who was constructively dismissed after she was not given adequate support following a workplace incident. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) heard that the receptionist, who was in her late 60s, had worked for the practice for almost 50 years. In 2019, she was involved in an incident with a patient that left her shaken and upset. The receptionist reported the incident to her manager, but she did not receive any support or counselling. She was also not given any time off work to recover from the incident. As a result of the lack of support, the receptionist felt that she could no longer work at the practice. She resigned from her job in 2020. The WRC found that the GP practice had failed to “engage” with the receptionist after the incident. The practice had not provided her with any support or counselling, and it had not given her any time off work to recover. The WRC also found that the practice had not followed its own grievance procedure. The practice had not investigated the incident or given the receptionist an opportunity to respond to the allegations made against her. The WRC ordered the GP practice to pay the receptionist €40,000 in compensation for her constructive dismissal. The WRC also ordered the practice to review its grievance procedure and to provide training to its staff on how to deal with workplace incidents.