Worker gets €15,000 after claim she was ‘ostracised’
A worker at a major representative body has been awarded €15,000 after claiming she suffered “horrific” treatment and was harassed, humiliated and “systematically ostracised” for representing staff.
The woman, who works as a personal assistant, claimed she was discriminated against and victimised after making complaints and taking up a staff representative role.
She said the organisation, which is not named, “adopted characteristics that would be associated with the worst of employers”.
The woman, who was personal assistant to two senior managers, said“given the particular nature of the organisation and its espoused values there was a legitimate expectation it would have dealt with the issues fairly and expeditiously”. She claimed she was “demoted by stealth”.
The woman claimed she was deprived of carrying out her role as a PA, given minimum work and responsibilities, and assigned “menial” tasks. She said she was denied access to emails and filled her time drinking coffee and doing crosswords.
She made a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) under the Industrial Relations Act, claiming she tried to address her complaints through internal procedures but could not get agreement to an independent investigator.
In a new decision dated last Monday, WRC adjudication officer Patricia Owens said the complaint is well founded.
“I was acutely aware of the distress of the complainant and of the impact that these events have had on her well-being,” she said.
She recommended that the organisation pay the woman
€15,000 for its “failure to address her complaints in a timely and reasonable manner and for its failure to project her well-being in the workplace”.
The woman who has worked for the representative body since November 1976 said she had almost 49 years of impeccable service. She said she had not experienced any industrial relations difficulties until 2017, but that “drastically changed”.
She said she was informed by the head of the organisation that she was being transferred to a new role, which she disputed.
This culminated in a Labour Court hearing which found in her favour in November 2021. After she progressed this complaint, she said her workload was downgraded. She alleged that in 2018 as a result of working from home, which was agreed, she was threatened with charges of gross misconduct by another senior manager.
After being elected as a staff representative to the internal staff representative body in 2020, she said this resulted in further erosion of her duties.
The representative organisation acknowledged the delay in bringing the matter to finality but claimed it was not possible to get her agreement to an independent investigator.
The organisation said it believed it acted in a fair and reasonable manner. It claimed the employee’s representative rejected “all reasonable attempts” to appoint an investigator.
In her decision, Ms Owens said the organisation must agree an independent investigator to consider the complaints fully and this process should be complete within four weeks of the recommendation.
In the interim, she said the organisation should engage with the worker to restore work of an equivalent value to the work that had “been eroded”.