This is a complaint by six Polish construction workers, who worked for the employer for at least four years prior to their dismissal in May 2009. The first-named did not make representations to the Tribunal and the case proceeded on the basis of submissions by the remaining five complainants. The Tribunal dismissed complaints on equal pay, discrimination in training, victimisation and discriminatory and victimisatory dismissals but found in favour of the complainants on discriminatory terms of employment and harassment.

In terms of harassment, there was evidence from the employer’s Irish employees that the complainant’s line manager was prone to ‘fiery outbursts’. The Tribunal preferred the evidence of the complainants that these included racist abuse. The Tribunal accepted that the complainants could not have been expected to use the company’s grievance procedure as this would have involved a complaint to their line manager, or then to his manager, who was a close associate of the line manager, and ultimately to the company’s managing director. The Tribunal accepted their evidence that they did complain to a Polish engineer in the company and that was as much as could have been expected of them.

A key issue on discriminatory terms of employment, in relation to accommodation provided by the employer, was that their line manager and his manager purchased a house, which they rented to the employer company which, in turn, rented it to the complainants. The Tribunal accepted that this was a discriminatory arrangement. It found that the two managers had exploited this situation through charging excessive rents and, given its conclusions on harassment, that their line manager had threatened them with dismissal when they objected to the arrangement. The Tribunal concluded that this dependent relationship would have been “most unusual” in the case of an Irish worker and so that these were discriminatory arrangements, in which the employer colluded through the rental arrangements and was, in any event, vicariously liable for the acts of the two managers.

On the basis of these two sets of conclusions, each of the five remaining complainants was awarded (i) €5000 for the harassment endured and (ii) €10,000 for other discrimination in relation to his conditions of employment.

http://www.equalitytribunal.ie/Database-of-Decisions/2012/Employment-Equality-Decisions/DEC-E2012-122-Full-Case-Report.html