Bernadette Treanor is the founder of Beo Solutions, an employee relations and engagement consultancy which provides best practice expert leadership and impartial organisational support in the areas of employee relations, employee engagement, workplace investigations, disciplinary hearings and mediation.
An expert in equality law, Bernadette provides Equality reviews and assessments, including assessments of cases being prepared. She is a Committee member of the Employment Law Association of Ireland (ELAI) and CIPD member. She reviews equality Decisions issued by the Equality Tribunal for Legal Island monthly and chairs its annual Equality Conference aimed at equality practitioners.
The complainant had appealed the Decision of the Equality Tribunal that had not upheld her complaints of discriminatory treatment by her employer. Her claim in respect of dismissal had been heard and decided by the EAT and she was awarded €7,500. The Labour Court found that by operation of section 101(4)(c) she was estopped from seeking redress under both Acts and consequently the Court had no jurisdiction to hear that part of her claim.
The Court considered section 77(5) and indicated that the effect of that provision is that redress can be sought only in respect of occurrences during the six months prior to the date of receipt of the complaint by the Equality Tribunal unless a continuum of events is what is at issue. The Tribunal had received the complaint on 4 August 2010. The Court states that “other than her dismissal there were no alleged acts during the period 5 February 2010 and the date of her dismissal 10 May 2010. This follows the Hurley v Cork VEC EDA1123 Determination.
As there were no impugned incidents, other than the dismissal which was estopped as above, during the six months prior to her lodging her claim the Court could not uphold her claim. However, the Court also considered the allegations made by the complainant and stated that as no evidence was produced to substantiate the complainant’s assertions or suppositions she had failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. The Court concurred with the findings and Decision of the Equality Officer and the complainant’s appeal failed.
Why is this case of interest
- It is a reminder that an incident that occurred within the six months prior to the lodgment of the complaint must be found discriminatory before older incidents will be addressed to establish they are connected.
- It is also a reminder that the fact that a complainant falls within the definition of one or more of the grounds is insufficient to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. Even where, in addition, adverse treatment is established there must be some link or nexus between the ground and the treatment.
Read the full case here:
http://www.labourcourt.ie/en/Cases/2014/February/EDA146.html
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