A shop worker with a weakened immune system who was dismissed for being off sick for 12 days during her first six months on the job has won €6,500 for disability discrimination.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) directed the payment of compensation after ruling the complainant’s former employer in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998.

The business, identified only as “a large retail store” in an anonymised decision published on Monday, had claimed it was not on notice of any disability – but the tribunal found in favour of the worker after accepting she raised the matter during her job interview.

The tribunal heard the complainant started work as a sales assistant in August 2024, engaged on an initial six-month probationary period.

At a hearing in September 2025, the worker said she had told the manager who interviewed her for the job that she had a heart condition and an operation when she was 16, and would need time off for medical appointments. The manager told her this was “fine”, she said.

She said in evidence that she fell ill with Covid-19 in September 2024 and suffered a secondary infection. By January 2025, she said, she was still sick with “upper pulmonary infection” which “did not clear”, she said.

Eventually, she had to take seven days off work sick with “glandular fever, kidney infection, sinus illness and tonsillitis”. She said her doctor had advised her that her immune system was “run down due to Covid” and “completely depleted”.

In all, she said, she was out sick for five days in September 2024 and seven days in January 2025.

Following certified absence from January 17th to 24th, 2025, the worker had annual leave and did not return to work until February 4th.

After she attended a return-to-work meeting that day, her employer called her back to a second meeting and terminated her employment with one week’s notice, she said.

The company’s position was that the worker’s “absent rate” was “unacceptably high during her probation period”.

The complainant said she asked her bosses at the meeting to rethink the decision, arguing she had worked “very diligently” and had taken on extra shifts when she was asked to during busy periods.

“The complainant did not dispute her level of absence and, again, at no point did she maintain that her absence was due to the existence of an underlying condition or disability,” the business’s legal team said.

The business argued further that the illnesses giving rise to the sick leave were “manifestly temporary in nature” and that the worker had failed to establish the condition of her health amounted to a disability.

The worker said she had “very little” time off due to illness in her previous job, but that after contracting Covid-19, she suffered “infection after infection”. Because of her heart condition, she had a “weakened immune system”, and needed longer to recover, she said.

Adjudication officer Valerie Murtagh wrote in her decision that the worker was “a credible witness and her evidence was cogent and convincing”.

“I find that the complainant raised the issue of her disability at the interview stage … she informed [the hiring manager] that she had a heart condition and had a stent inserted at age 16 and sometimes got infections as a result,” she said.

Ms Murtagh was satisfied the employer was on notice that the worker had a disability and had failed to provide reasonable accommodation to her.

She found further that the worker was “discriminatorily dismissed” due to her disability.

The employer was directed to pay €6,500 in compensation and to review its procedures and training to ensure compliance with equality law.