OMNIPLEX CORK HAS been ordered to more than double the compensation it must pay to a former manager who is autistic after appealing a previous Workplace Relations Commission ruling.

The WRC ruled in 2024 that Omniplex Cork must pay Dylan O’Riordan €12,000 for failing to provide him with reasonable accommodations for his autism.

Omniplex Cork appealed this ruling in the Labour Court but has ruled in O’Riordan’s favour and more than doubled the compensation owed to €29,000.

O’Riordan resigned from Omniplex Cork in Mahon Point in June 2024.

He started with the cinema in a part-time supervisor role in March 2022, before becoming full-time deputy manager in March 2023, with a salary of €29,000.

O’Riordan is autistic and also suffers with mental health issues and the Court heard that both conditions are inter-related.

The Labour Court noted that “when his mental health declines, his autism is exacerbated and he has a tendency to go into autistic shutdown”.

O’Riordan informed his employer of this during the recruitment and on-boarding process, and also separately informed his manager of this.

He began to experience a “decline” in his well-being in or about late summer 2022 and “verbally requested reasonable accommodation”.

The Court noted that he repeated those requests again in 2023, having disclosed to the general manager his mental health issues and his concern that he was “approaching autistic shutdown”.

According to O’Riordan, the general manager told him a number of times that she did not regard autism as a disability and instead saw it as a “superpower” – this was denied by a witness on behalf of Omniplex.

The Labour Court said his “requests for reasonable accommodation were not facilitated” but that he was offered access to counselling via its Employee Assistance Programme.

O’Riordan did not avail himself of this as he already had a long-standing therapist and felt that meeting a second counsellor could be counterproductive.

In October 2023, O’Riordan commenced a period of certified sick leave.

In January 2024, an occupational healthcare report advised that O’Riordan was not yet fit to return to work but was fit to engage in relation to the various elements of reasonable accommodation proposed in the report.

Human Resources followed up by email in mid-March 2024 with two proposed roster arrangements, neither of which fully accommodated O’Riordan’s requirements.

A third proposal was later made to O’Riordan regarding a roster arrangement which Omniplex believed could accommodate his requirements but advised that this would be subject to review every two to four weeks.

The Labour Court noted that the “uncertainty” that O’Riordan perceived with this proposed roster made it unacceptable to him.

O’Riordan resigned in June 2024, having submitted his originating complaint form to the WRC on 7 May 2024.

In an October 2024 ruling, the WRC ordered Omniplex Cork to pay O’Riordan €12,000 in compensation.

However, the following month, Omniplex Cork lodged an appeal against this decision, and then O’Riordan counter appealed.

The Labour Court heard the appeal in Waterford on 31 March 2026.

During the appeal, O’Riordan accepted that there had been a level of engagement between the parties and that a number of options were presented to him.

He said that in his view, a proposed schedule which was liable to be reviewed every two to four weeks did not provide the level of consistency needed but that he would not have had a problem with an arrangement to review the schedule every six to eight weeks.

It was put to O’Riordan that his employer had made accommodations for him, such as providing a quiet space, building in short, structured breaks and giving him an earphone loop.

O’Riordan acknowledged this but “stressed” that he had been “instrumental in achieving those accommodations”.

The HR manager, Ray Fitzpatrick, said he had consulted with both As I Am and with IBEC in relation to the reasonable accommodations for a neurodivergent employee.

He acknowledged that Omniplex Cork did not carry out a workplace assessment, as had been recommended, but said this would have been done as part of a return-to-work plan.

The Labour Court said that O’Riordan had “articulated his request for reasonable accommodation from an early stage” and that his requests were “very much in line with what the respondent’s chosen occupational health consultant subsequently recommended”.

The Court added that there was a “considerable delay in engaging meaningfully” with O’Riordan in relation to suitable rostering arrangements and that “no cogent argument was advanced” that O’Riordan’s request would “impose a disproportionate burden on the Respondent”.

The Court concluded that O’Riordan’s request “could have been met and done so in a timely fashion” had Omniplex Cork been “truly committed” to facilitating a return to work.

Therefore, O’Riordan’s appeal was upheld and the Labour Court increased the compensation to a year’s salary, €29,000, for the “effects of the discrimination he experienced”.