THE IRISH PRISON Service has been ordered to pay €60,000 in compensation for failing to provide reasonable accommodation to a female prison officer who suffered multiple injuries in a serious assault by an inmate in 2017.

Kim Dempsey (37) has suffered from chronic and ongoing lower back pain since the attack at the Midlands Prison, requiring her to undergo regular medical treatment, including joint injections and nerve root blockage.

The prison service’s own chief medical officer found that Dempsey was not medically fit for general prison officer duties, and required a position in an office-based capacity without manual duties.

They also certified that Dempsey needed to be accommodated at a location without a long commute from her home, and that she would require these accommodations indefinitely.

While on certified sick leave, she returned to full-time education and attained the relevant qualifications for the office-based role of Work Training Officer (WTO) with the IPS. However, she was not allowed to take up this post.

The IPS argued that the WTO role, particularly in understaffed prisons like Cloverhill where Dempsey had sought to work, regularly required employees to “fill in” for general prison officers.

An adjudication hearing of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) heard that the prison service had an internal policy stating that reasonable accommodations were limited to a maximum of three months, and could only be extended in exceptional circumstances.

WRC adjudication officer, Jim Dolan, found that this restriction was not compliant with the IPS’s legal obligations under the Employment Equality Act, which requires employers to make effective and permanent accommodations.

Dolan said the IPS had failed to genuinely consider adjustments to facilitate Dempsey’s return to work, and had instead attempted to force her towards ill-health retirement or a significant pay cut by regrading.

In his decision, the adjudication officer found the IPS to have breached Section 16 of the Employment Equality Act 1998, having failed to provide appropriate reasonable accommodation to Dempsey.

He ordered the IPS to pay €60,000 in compensation within 42 days of the decision, and also required the prison service to reasonably
accommodate her by finding her a position that will permit her continued employment as a prison officer.

Dempsey should be included in any discussion or decision in the task of finding such a position, and this process should not take longer than three months, Dolan added.