Solicitor sober since 2019 claims discrimination, victimisation on grounds of disability of alcoholism
The case was part-heard in late October last and is expected to return before a Workplace Relations Commission adjudication officer in January. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin claims he has suffered years of discrimination and victimisation since telling his employer he underwent treatment for alcohol addiction.
Before undergoing treatment at the Rutland Centre, Dublin, in 2019, he said he hid his drinking from work colleagues, who expressed surprise when they learned subsequently of his addiction. He felt his professional development was being blocked and he was being sidelined and described the experience as “humiliating”. Management never mentioned alcohol addiction to him or offered any follow-up support, he added.Mr Murphy, represented by barrister Tiernan Lowey at the WRC hearing, is due to be cross-examined on behalf of the ODPP when the hearing resumes before adjudicator Catherine Byrne on a date to be decided early next year.
Even if Mr Murphy established he has a disability, that was not sufficient to establish a prima facie case of discrimination on grounds of that disability, it was further submitted. He referred to legal authorities to the effect that alcoholism falls within the definition of disability and to an expert witness report by Prof Jo-Hanna Ivers, clinical psychologist and associate professor in addiction in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care in Trinity College Dublin.
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