Niall O’Connor

AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA arbitrarily refused to pay full sick leave entitlements to an on-duty garda who suffered a torn calf muscle, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has found.

The WRC found that “no proper procedures” were used by the garda organisation in how it handled the woman’s case. 

The ruling by the WRC follows a similar finding in regard to another female garda who was found to have been treated unfairly by the garda organisation when she was out sick with stress. In that case, the woman was awarded €10,000.

Both cases found that An Garda Síochána was in breach of case law established in the High Court judgment of Deming Gao v The Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, specifically in regard to how the organisation classifies sick leave. 

The WRC has anonymised both of its cases, but it identifies the employer as a police service. Enquiries by The Journal have established the identities of those involved and the organisation as An Garda Síochána.

The female garda at the centre of the most recent case was injured in February 2024 when she suffered a torn calf muscle as she was coming down steps at her garda station to get into her patrol car.

She was off sick for 71.5 days.

In its investigation, the garda organisation confirmed the injury by examining CCTV footage and “local management” confirmed that the injury happened. 

Despite that, the WRC ruling stated, that local management “expressed doubt that there was enough evidence” that the garda was entitled to “full payment” under internal sick pay regulations. 

To avoid paying the garda what she was entitled to, garda management declared her sickness as “ordinary”, which is below the threshold of an on-duty injury – this was an interpretation of the internal Garda Code 11.37. This governs how gardaí are paid full pay while off sick if the injury is deemed to have happened on duty.

The woman disputed this classification but was blocked by the garda organisation from taking a grievance and was left with no other option but to resort to the WRC, the ruling stated.

Counsel for An Garda Síochána argued that the WRC could not inquire into the issue as there were “ongoing collective discussions” around the sick leave entitlement. In other words, the garda representative bodies were in talks with garda headquarters about how 11.37 was imposed on injured members. 

The garda organisation also argued that the woman got her full entitlements after a thorough investigation and use of “administrative discretion”.

The High Court judgment states that a case must be established that the garda was responsible for their own injury on duty before their entitlements under the relevant protocol are denied.

No accusation

The garda, in her case to the WRC, said that no accusation was made by An Garda Síochána that the woman was responsible for her own injury.

Counsel for the garda organisation argued during the hearing in the WRC that the woman received her entitlements and that it was a “discretionary power” of managers to decide the payment. They denied there is an automatic entitlement.

This local management decision was upheld by the garda human resources department. 

An Garda Síochána claimed there was “no great financial loss” incurred by the garda and claimed she was short just €2,092.76 because of their decision.

In its findings, the WRC determined that they could investigate the case because it was an individual occurrence and not a collective one. 

The WRC ruling said that any examination of the decision by management was to prevent the arbitrary administration of the regulation. 

The finding by the WRC also found that garda human resources’ use of 11.37 against the garda exceeded “any reasonable literal or implied interpretation of Section 11.37, which I find led to a misguided discretion when the decision to deny payment under 11.37 was made”. 

The WRC also found that “no proper procedures” were applied by garda management, especially in regard to how the organisation blocked the garda’s ability to seek a dispute resolution mechanism. 

The ruling found that this was done “without reasonable cause”. 

The WRC directed An Garda Síochána to pay the garda €5,000 “to cover both financial loss and compensation to cover the upset caused by the aggravating factors identified above”. 

It also directed that the garda’s sick leave record should be reclassified in internal files so as not to impact her in the future.