A cocaine addict who dressed up as a dinosaur while working as a porter at a hospital here has lost his unfair dismissal action.
This follows Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudication Officer, Catherine Byrne, finding that the dismissal of the hospital porter was reasonable, proportionate and was not unfair.
The porter first came to the negative notice of his hospital bosses after a clinical nurse manager reported that on April 11th 2019 that he was distracting staff from getting on with their work, had dressed up as a dinosaur and had disrupted the evening drug administration round.
Ms Byrne stated that the facts as outlined by the hospital concerning the April 11th incident are facts as they have not been contradicted.
A representative for the un-named hospital told the WRC hearing that on April 11th 2019, the porter was unable to perform his duties due to being under the influence of alcohol, unprescribed drugs or the misuse of prescribed medicine.
The porter was referred to a rehab programme after the hospital’s Occupational Health Consultant (OHC) confirmed that the porter tested positive for cocaine and benzodiazepine and that he had an addiction to cocaine and alcohol after a consultation in June 2019.
Four days after the ‘dinosaur’ incident on April 15th 2019, at the first consultation, the OHC concluded that the porter was suffering from depression and anxiety.
However, the porter disagreed with the OHC’s recommendation that he attend a rehab programme.
A representative for the hospital told the WRC hearing that the man failed to engage with management after disagreeing with the OHC recommendation.
The hospital representative stated that despite numerous attempts to contact him, the porter did not make any contact with management until he was dismissed in September 2019.
The hospital stated that the man - employed there since 2013 - was dismissed for gross misconduct for failing to perform his job due to being under the influence of unprescribed drugs or prescribed medicine and for failing to engage with management about his ongoing absence.
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