A garden centre which had an autistic job applicant work an unpaid trial shift without asking the same of other candidates has been ordered to pay €5,000 for disability discrimination at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). A garden centre which had an autistic job applicant work an unpaid trial shift without asking the same of other candidates has been ordered to pay €5,000 for disability discrimination at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). His case was that he was “misled into working an unpaid ‘trial day’”. “The requirement that the complainant alone undertake an unpaid ‘trial’ constituted a differential and disadvantageous condition of access to employment not imposed on other candidates,” Mr O’Driscoll wrote. He noted that the experience left the complainant “confused, humiliated and excluded” and had “a lasting negative impact on his confidence and self-worth”.

Source: The Irish Times November 21, 2025 16:04 UTC