Employee who frequently slept at her desk reinstated by Employment Court...

The Employment Court has reinstated an employee to the payroll of the employer that dismissed her. The Employer dismissed the employee after she abused her colleagues, showed up to work late most of the time, and repeatedly fell asleep at work.

The employee brought an application to the Employment Relations Authority to get reinstated temporarily to her job, claiming that she should not be deprived of work while waiting for her hearing. The Authority rejected her claim.

The employee challenged this decision in the Employment Court, claiming that she should be reinstated to her former job temporarily until the Authority holds a hearing to decide whether the dismissal was unjustified.

The employee had to convince the Court that there was a serious question to be tried regarding her unjustified dismissal claim. She presented evidence to the Court that she was dealing with medical problems outside of work that were affecting her ability to perform her job.

The woman sought out a psychologist’s report to assess any potential reasons why she was unable to perform at the level her employer needed. This report revealed that the employee was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that was found to have been affecting her performance in the workplace significantly.

The psychologist indicated that the employee should not be punished for her trauma and that she would make a passionate employee if she was provided with more support, both in and out of the workplace.

The employer argued that the way the employee conducted herself at the office shows that she was unable to meet her contractual obligations, and that the performance issues were serious enough to make her dismissal justifiable.

The Court decided that because the employer failed to consider the employee’s medical condition before dismissing her, there was an arguable case of unjustified dismissal that the Authority needed to consider.

It was also decided that there were grounds for permanent reinstatement that needed to be heard by the Authority. This led the Court to reinstate the employee to the employer’s payroll, but not to the workplace itself.

The Court stated that reinstating the employee to the employer’s payroll would allow her to continue to progress medically and to gather more evidence of the medical issues.

The unjustified dismissal hearing is expected to take place in April 2025.