Employee Receives €20,000 over 'Victimisation' claim

An employee made a claim of discrimination due to her sexual orientation. The employer rejects this stating that its concerns are solely based on her performance.

The complainant had completed a performance assessment in June 2008 which was signed off by both herself and her line manager.  The complainant stated that on 19 September 2008, she was informed that there had been a mistake with the June performance assessment report (which rated her as 'meets the requirements of the job/role' - which may be seen as an average rating) and the 'wrong' version had been completed.  Her line manager presented her with a corrected version for signature, stating that it was an exact copy of the earlier form.  The complainant stated that upon examination, her rating had been downgraded to a numerical 2 out of 5 score (equating to a rating of needs improvement - role holder has met some role requirements to required standard but performance has fallen short in some respects' - which may be seen as a below-average rating).

The Equality Tribunal found that a prima facie case of victimisation has been established and this element of the complaint is upheld.
She was therefore awarded €20,000 in compensation for the victimisation suffered. 

 

Employee Dismissed with unfair procedures Receives €20,000

The Tribunal is of the view that in all the circumstances of the case the claimant was
unfairly dismissed. The respondent’s procedures were tainted with lack of procedural fairness
insofar as the claimant was not informed of the formal nature of the respondent’s investigation on
8th February2007 or its potential consequences.

Given that the claimant’s “offence” in relation to the incident under investigation was his first ever
disciplinary issue and that the claimant reported the matter to the respondent with all due dispatch
and given his cooperation with his employers, the Tribunal is unanimously of the view that sanction
of dismissal was disproportionate and is found to be unfair.

In all the circumstances, including the period of the claimant’s period of unemployment before
commencing a new job, the Tribunal awards the claimant the sum of €20,000.