THE NUMBER of cases handled by the Equality Tribunal relating to claims of discriminatory dismissal on grounds of race, pregnancy or disability has trebled since the economy peaked and the recession has taken hold.
Melanie Pine, director of the Equality Tribunal, said yesterday that three-quarters of its cases now relate to these types of claims as companies shed workers during the recession.
In 2005 just a quarter of the tribunal’s referrals related to these types of cases, said Ms Pine at the launch of the Equality Tribunal’s annual report.
The report shows there were 117 referrals to the tribunal on grounds of disability in 2009, up 21 per cent on the year before. The number of referrals based on gender increased 20 per cent to 95 in 2009. The number of referrals based on race declined to 289, a 29 per cent reduction on the 2008 figure. However, Ms Pine said this masked a huge increase in referrals on grounds of race over the past four years.
“In the last two years race accounted for over a third of our caseload. This reflects the huge changes in our labour force,” she said.
Minister for Equality Mary White, who attended the launch of the report, said the report illustrated the importance of her quest to ensure that there is no room in Ireland for overt or covert racism.
She said the State was in a serious financial position and resources were scarce. “These circumstances of increased competition have the potential to increase the risk of discrimination against vulnerable people in our society, particularly in the employment field,” she said.
“We have to knock on the head any sign of racism or xenophobia,” said Ms White, who noted the valuable contribution made by migrants to the Irish economy.
Most decisions of the Equality Tribunal are issued within six weeks of a hearing.
However, Ms Pine said there were serious financial pressures on the tribunal. She said travel restrictions meant that a driving ban had been imposed on staff, preventing them from attending hearings in towns that do not have a train station. “This is inefficient for us and can cause hardship for parties,” she said.