Software firm ordered to pay €46,000 to manager fired on sick leave

A SOFTWARE firm which sacked an office manager with an incurable degenerative disease while she was on sick leave has been ordered to pay her €46,000 in compensation.

CoreHR has been ordered to pay Natasha Lawson €23,000 after the Work Relations Commission found the firm carried out a discriminatory dismissal.

In his decision, adjudication officer Stephen Bonnlander also ordered the firm to pay an additional €23,000 for its refusal to make a reasonable accommodation of her disability in the workplace.

Mr Bonnlander found the delay in Ms Lawson’s return to work as a result of a road accident did not give the employer a right to terminate her employment or to withdraw its previous offer of a phased return to work.

Ms Lawson has fibromyalgia, which is incurable and characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain. Ms Lawson was with the firm from 2015 and in May 2017 she went on sick leave following a car crash. In November 2017, she was dismissed during a company conference call.

Ms Lawson said the reason she was given was her incapacity and “the problems her absenteeism were causing”.

She stated her dismissal “knocked her back”, personally and in terms of her career aspirations and caused her and her husband considerable financial hardship.

In its defence, CoreHR stated it could not hold Ms Lawson’s position indefinitely and disputed it did not offer reasonable accommodation.