Englishman wins €20k for racial abuse in workplace
AN Englishman has been awarded €20,000 after Irish colleagues taunted and racially abused him at work.
The pipe fitter worked for an engineering company on a Dublin building site. He claimed fellow employees called him names and frequently ganged up on him to sing rebel songs.
The man, who requested anonymity told an Equality Tribunal that some workers never spoke to him and whenever staff had to enter tanks or dangerous spaces they would say "send the Brit in" to make the way safe.
He said the abuse began shortly after he joined the company in April 2006. They read aloud negative reports about England in newspapers and the performance of the country's football team in the World Cup that year when he was around. He said it affected him so bad that he began eating lunch in his car instead of in the canteen.
Two months after starting work the man was made redundant and he said he was sacked instead of a less experienced Irish worker. The pipe fitter said that when the issue of redundancy arose one worker said aloud "the Brit should be sacked and an Irishman should not be let go."
The company rejected the harassment allegations and claimed the man never complained about the abuse. They said that the pipe fitter was laid off because he had less service than other workers.
The Equality Tribunal found that the man was racially harassed and that some of the acts were blatant and intimidatory. As a result the company was ordered to pay €20,000 to the man. However the Tribunal ruled the company did not choose the man for redundancy because of his nationality.
Meanwhile it has emerged that the Government is considering plans to merge the Equality Authority, the Irish Human Rights Commission and the office of the Data Protection Commissioner into a single agency.
- Sarah Neville
