Pharmaceutical firm SK Biotek Ireland Ltd has successfully overturned a €500 compensation award to a former employee at the Labour Court, reversing a previous decision made by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The case centered on whether Shannon Reina, a quality control analyst employed by SK Biotek between August 2023 and July 2024, was entitled to statutory sick pay despite being excluded from the company’s internal sick pay scheme.
Reina had argued that, having been excluded from the company’s sick pay policy following a disciplinary procedure related to absences in late 2023, she should have been eligible for statutory sick pay during an absence from May 13th to 17th, 2024. She contended that her exclusion rendered any comparison of benefits irrelevant, and she should fall back on statutory entitlements. The WRC adjudication officer initially agreed, awarding her €500.
However, SK Biotek appealed the decision to the Labour Court. Desmond Ryan BL, representing the company, argued that the Sick Leave Act 2022 did not apply in circumstances where an employer already provided a sick pay scheme offering benefits “as a whole, more favourable to the employee than statutory sick leave.” He asserted that a comparison of the two schemes demonstrated a clear outcome, and the conditions attached to the company’s scheme were not relevant.
The Labour Court, chaired by Alan Haugh, sided with SK Biotek, finding that the complainant herself acknowledged the company’s sick leave scheme offered more favorable benefits than the statutory minimum. The court noted Reina had “not disputed that she did not meet the eligibility criteria of the respondent’s scheme in May 2024 due to the extent of her illness-related absences from the workplace.”
The court determined that section 9(1) of the Sick Leave Act 2022 “absolutely exempts the respondent from the obligation to apply the statutory sick leave scheme” and subsequently set aside the WRC’s decision. The court found Reina’s claim was “not consistent with the proper interpretation of section 9(1)” of the Act.
The case was heard by the Labour Court on January 28th, 2026, according to the Labour Court’s published employment rights programme. Legal Island reported on the initial WRC decision in April 2025, highlighting the case as an example of evolving employment law.
