WRC Awards €8,000 for Penalisation of a Whistleblower

In Bruno Seigle – Murandi v Roche Products (Ireland) Limited ADJ 00034384 the Complainant lodged a claim with the Workplace Relations Commission (“WRC”) pursuant to Schedule 2 of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, on foot of what he claimed was adverse treatment amounting to penalisation due to having made protected disclosures.

Facts

The Complainant in this case commenced employment with the Respondent as a Pharmocovigilance Manager in August 2018.  In May, 2019, he made a protected disclosure concerning marketing materials which were being published and distributed by the Respondent. The disclosure related to a concern that the materials appeared very similar to patient information materials, which are tightly controlled and regulated by law.

It appears to have been accepted by both sides that this amounted to a protected disclosure. It is also common case that the Respondent then self-reported the issue to the Health Products Regulation Authority (“HPRA). However, much of the rest of the facts of the case appear to have been in dispute and the WRC decision is a lengthy detailed decision (see link below).

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