Equality Tribunal awards €95,000 to employee for gender discrimination
Ms Claire Keenan worked for Mortgage Cabin as a mortgage consultant since February 2005. In December 2007 she informed her employer that she was pregnant. She was told on the 13th July 2008, whilst pregnant, that she was being made redundant on the grounds that ‘there wasn’t enough business to go around’. The employer had hired an additional employee six weeks before making Ms Keenan redundant. The equality officer found that the hiring of an additional employee shortly before making Ms Keenan redundant was not consistent with the submission of the employer that he was in serious financial difficulty at the time.
It was alleged that the employer had approached Ms Keenan in the weeks and months prior to the redundancy decision regarding not taking the full maternity leave entitlement. The equality officer was satisfied that the employer did take issue with the employee availing of her full maternity leave entitlements and did seek to put pressure on her to reduce her maternity leave or at least to work from home. In conclusion the equality officer found that Ms Keenan’s wish to avail of her full maternity rights was the catalyst for the redundancy and that she was discriminated against on the gender ground
The employer was ordered to pay Ms Keenan the sum of €95,000, the approximate equivalent of 12 months pay, to compensate her for the distress caused to her as a result of the discrimination.
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