In John-Paul Barbour-Hyland v Daa Plc Dublin Airport Authority (ADJ-00048082), the Complainant brought a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (“the WRC”) under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 – 2015 claiming that he was discriminated on the ground of disability.

Facts: The Complainant began working for the Respondent’s security department on 23 May 2022 and was terminated by the Respondent on 30 March 2023. The Complainant was unable to successfully pass certain security exams due to his dyslexia, and so the Respondent transferred him an alternative role in Service Delivery in Operations in July 2022. The Complainant said that he accepted this role ‘under duress’ and he had a concern doing the role due to one of his disabilities. The Complainant attended a pre-employment medical screening on 4 August 2022, where he was deemed fit to do the role provided he rotated between indoors and outdoors due to being sensitive to sunlight. The Complainant began working in the Service Delivery role on 10 October 2022, and signed a new contract dated 12 October 2022. The Complainant was called to a meeting on 3 February 2022 by his Team Leader and was told he was late for work too often. The meeting did not discuss the Complainant’s performance generally but just focused on his timekeeping. The Complainant had been a few minutes late for work on six occasions and explained that his medication and IBS combined made it challenging for him to be always punctual. The Team Leader told the Complainant he understood and told the Complainant not to worry. The Complainant was then given a performance improvement letter which did not cite his explanations for being late nor the reassurances given to him by the Team Leader. On 30 March 2023 the Complainant was called to a meeting by his Team leader and a manager at which his employment was terminated due to lateness, absenteeism and falling below competency expectations.

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