Kerry haulage firm must pay female truck driver €30,000 in gender discrimination case
A Kerry haulage firm has been ordered to pay €30,000 compensation to a female truck driver who it discriminated against on grounds of gender over how it applied reduced working hours to staff.
The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that Brennan's Licensed Hauliers Kilflynn Limited based in Tralee, Co Kerry, breached the Employment Equality Act 1998 over the manner in which it laid off Sinead Allen in November and December 2023.
The WRC concluded Ms Allen was treated less favourably than a male colleague who had a separate undisclosed arrangement with the company regarding his hours.
WRC adjudication officer, Úna Glazier-Farmer, praised the courage of Ms Allen in making the complaint given she operated in 'a male-dominated profession' and said the award of €30,000 compensation should serve 'as a deterrent to discrimination".
She also noted that Ms Allen had challenged the company's fabrication of a story that she was unwelcome at a client's yard.
Ms Glazier-Smith said she did not accept that the other driver was more senior than Ms Allen as there was no evidence he was in continuous employment.
She said the company's director, Robert Brennan, was evasive in responses to the WRC and failed to produce supporting documentation.
The WRC also ruled that the company had unfairly dismissed Ms Allen from her job and awarded her an additional €3,188 in compensation.
Hours began to be reduced
Ms Allen, who was paid a daily rate of €120, claimed her hours began to be reduced from late November 2023 without notice while another driver, Jonathan Brosnan, continued working.
She pointed out that two other male drivers worked 'the odd day' around Christmas 2023 while she was 'left at home".
Ms Allen, who had worked with the company since March 2022, gave evidence that she saw the company's trucks on the road working, despite being told there was a downturn in business.
She denied any knowledge that the haulage firm operated a system of 'last in, first out' for redundancies.
Company denied unfair dismissal
The company denied that it had unfairly dismissed the complainant and claimed she had ceased working on a voluntary basis in January 2024.
Mr Brennan also denied that it had discriminated against Ms Allen and claimed the allocation of work among drivers was not influenced by gender.
He told the WRC that the business was dependent on weather conditions for its work for Kerry County Council, McSweeney Brothers and Ardfert Quarries.
He claimed 2023 was very quiet due to a 'downturn in construction.'
Mr Brennan explained that he had five drivers including himself with the roster 'drawn from seniority".
He claimed Ms Allen did not want to work intermittent days as it would affect her social welfare payments, while he and Mr Brosnan had their 'own agreement' about his hours.
In her ruling, Ms Glazier-Farmer noted that Mr Brennan had given evidence that the 'last in, first out' rule applied to offers of work when the business was quiet.
Asked if he had considered sharing work equally between drivers during quieter periods, Mr Brennan said Mr Brosnan 'wouldn't agree to that' before adding that dealing with drivers was 'like walking on eggshells".
'Transparent and predictable working conditions'
Ms Glazier-Farmer said financial records provided by Brennan's did not demonstrate that the company had no option but to lay off employees in late 2023.
The WRC said they had instead shown a healthy sales figure of over €71,000 for a three-month period.
Ms Glazier-Farmer said the practice described by Mr Brennan of laying off staff to cover short seasonal gaps in work was 'questionable' and ran contrary to employment legislation about transparent and predictable working conditions which took effect in December 2022.
Given the company's long-standing contracts with at least two businesses, she said it was 'unreasonable' to suggest an employee should be routinely expected to rely on social welfare to sustain the business without any consideration of alternative duties, structured annual leave over the Christmas period, or time in lieu.
The WRC also concluded that Ms Allen was unfairly dismissed from her job as no disciplinary or fair procedures were followed by the company.
The company was also ordered to pay further compensation of €2,393 to Ms Allen after it accepted that it had failed to provide her with a contract of employment or a statement of her terms and conditions.
Read More
Dundalk FC ordered to pay former executive almost €17,000 over unfair dismissal
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
20 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Tara Mines workers in Meath call for meeting with management on long-term future
The Tara Mines Group of Unions, including representatives from SIPTU, has formally requested a meeting with management to discuss delays in implementing a key component of the 2024 Sustainability Agreement, which was brokered by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The agreement was pivotal in ending an 18-month layoff period for workers and restarting operations at Ireland's largest zinc mine. Tara Mines, operated by Swedish firm Boliden, is Europe's largest zinc mine and a major economic engine for Meath. SIPTU Sector Organiser, John Regan, said: 'As part of the Sustainability Agreement reached under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in April 2024, which began the process of ending what would be 18 months of layoff for workers, it was agreed that 'further underground exploration drilling' would begin before 2027.' 'This refers to the Tara Deep, a project to develop a new ore body which has the potential to provide a further 40 years of mining in County Meath. Our members are not only focused on their employment but also the long-term viability of the mine, that is why this commitment by management was crucial to the 2024 WRC deal. In order to action this, Union representatives tabled a compromise proposal, to commence underground exploration drilling with immediate effect, at a Sustainability Agreement review meeting on May 12, 2025.' Mr Regan added that If management does not agree to commence work in line with the agreement, the unions will refer it back to the WRC. Andrew McGuinness, SIPTU Organiser, backed those concerns, pointing out that the company had already invested four years into developing Tara Deep before operations were halted in July 2023. He said: 'The company had invested in the development of Tara Deep for four years prior to the mine going into care and maintenance, with the lay-off of its workforce, in July 2023. At the time of commencement of this development plan, the timeframe was for Tara Deep to come into production in 2029. This timeframe is now ever increasing with Tara Deep development mining having not recommenced following the resumption of other activities at the Mine last year.' 'A failure to commence this development will leave the northeast region without one of its biggest employers in the near future. This will remove a key economic lifeline for the surrounding communities,' Mr McGuinness added. Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Baker who alleged he was subjected to racial slur in Polish wins €4,000
A baker has won €4,000 over being subjected to a racial slur in Polish by a colleague nearly six years ago. The award was made in a set of rulings published on Monday regarding a workplace dispute that arose in the spring of 2019. The worker, a black French man, alleged he was being bullied by predominantly Polish colleagues at an unidentified food and drinks company 'because he does not speak Polish'. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) rejected various complaints of his alleging discrimination in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998 on the grounds of race and disability. However, it found against the employer in respect of the racial slur incident in June 2019. READ MORE The worker gave evidence at a series of adjudication hearings, saying he 'felt threatened and isolated at work' during a period in early 2019 and felt he was suffering discrimination because he was 'black and did not speak Polish'. The worker said 'nothing was done' after he complained to his bosses in February 2019. The company's position was that it facilitated the worker by changing the start time of his shift and later changing his work location. It had also ordered his Polish colleagues to translate all work-related conversations to English, the tribunal was told. The complainant's further evidence was that after his transfer to the new work location he was subject to 'a particularly offensive and derogatory racial slur which was conveyed to him in Polish' on June 23rd, 2019. The worker who made the remark – which was not recorded in the tribunal's published decisions – left the employment the following day. The worker told the tribunal he 'did not know what it meant' until it was explained to him by a third party some months later, after which he filed his second complaint with the WRC. A head chef who gave evidence on behalf of the employer said 'nobody was subject to racial abuse' and that the workplace has 'zero tolerance' for bullying and harassment. The employer's position was that the complainant 'did not react well' when performance issues were raised with him. 'His response was to claim that he was being discriminated against and racially abused,' the company's representative submitted, adding that the firm had 'gone to great lengths' to support him. Adjudicator Andrew Heavey noted the accusation was 'vehemently denied' in the company's investigation process. However, he accepted the sworn evidence of the worker on the balance of probabilities. He wrote that despite the 'bona fides' and 'significant efforts' made by the employer to support the worker and address his complaints, it was still vicariously liable for the actions of its staff. He found the complainant was 'harassed on the race ground' on or about June 23rd, 2019, and directed the company to pay €4,000 in compensation for the discrimination. He rejected all other claims by the worker under the Employment Equality Act. Mr Heavey anonymised his decisions on the basis 'information of a sensitive nature relating to the complainant', which he believes 'deserves privacy'. He noted that when he held his final hearing into the claims last November, the complainant remained an employee of the firm and there had been 'no further issues'.
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Rental sector changes will encourage landlords to evict tenants, Focus Ireland warns
Proposed changes to the rental sector will incentivise landlords to evict tenants and increase rents, the head of homeless organisation Focus Ireland has warned. Housing minister James Browne will bring his proposals for an overhaul of the Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) system to a meeting of coalition leaders on Monday night and a memo to Cabinet on Tuesday. The moves are part of an overall plan to attract international investment and kickstart the building of apartments, as well as overhaul the RPZ system, which was introduced in 2016 and sharply criticised by last year's report from the Housing Commission. However, issuing a stern warning, Focus Ireland's Mike Allen said the measures will make renters even more vulnerable. "By creating a multi-tier rental system, you're creating an awful lot of complexity, which means that intrinsically, that creates vulnerability for people who are less able to negotiate those difficulties. But you also create incentives for landlords to evict people so they have a vacancy, and then they can re-rent at a higher rent," Mr Allen said. Under the plans, the 2% cap in RPZs will remain in place for existing tenancies, but new tenancies will be more closely linked to the base rate of inflation. Landlords will be able to change or reset rents between tenancies, a change from the current system, which designates whether or not a home is in a rent pressure zone. Mr Allen said this "is a Government policy to increase rents" adding that "the reason they want to increase the rents is so that private investors will get a higher return on their money and will invest". "But it also means that if that's the only way we can provide the housing, it's no way a solution to average workers, let alone low-income people." His comments came as a number of trade unions and organisations came together ahead of a Raise the Roof rally outside Leinster House next week, calling for urgent government action on Ireland's housing and homelessness crisis, with a separate protest being organised in Cork later in the month. The Dublin rally is timed to coincide with a private members motion tabled by opposition parties in the Dáil, and will feature speakers from political parties, alongside a series of singers and spoken word performances, including folk singer Lisa O'Neill, punk singer Meryl Streek, writer and artist Veronica Dyas, folk singers Jimi Cullen and Cork campaigner Martin Leahy. The motion calls for emergency action on the housing and homelessness crisis, including increased investment in public housing, action to protect private renters, and a re-introduction of the ban on no-fault evictions. The Raise the Roof campaign group is co-ordinated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and includes trade unions, housing and homeless agencies, women's groups, human rights advocacy groups, and community organisations. Speaking at a press conference to launch the rally, SIPTU deputy general secretary Ethel Buckley said: 'In the last 10 years, rents and house prices have doubled — and in some areas more than doubled — while wages have increased by less than 40%. If anything, this gap has widened in the last couple of years. Rents and house prices are out of control. 'Alongside the human cost of this, we are seeing the serious knock-on effects, with thousands of unfilled vacancies in key sectors, and young people once again choosing to emigrate. 'We are deeply concerned at the lack of urgency shown so far by this new government. A government that is content to play the role of helpless bystander to this ever-worsening emergency. What is needed now is a radical reset with sustained action to deliver secure, affordable housing.' Read More Government must introduce new support models to take people out of homelessness, charity warns
