A former payroll administrator has had a €20,000 compensation award for dismissal on the basis of her race confirmed by the Labour Court.
Goode Concrete had appealed to the court against the discrimination award by an Equality Tribunal to Oksana Shaskova after it rejected the company’s claim that she had been made redundant because her job was outsourced.
In its determination, the court said the company’s explanation for her dismissal was “specious and wholly unconvincing”. It said it was “fully satisfied” the company had failed to prove her dismissal was “unrelated to her nationality”.
Ms Shaskova, a Russian national who worked for the firm since November 2005, was dismissed in October 2007. She also provided translation services for the firm at disciplinary interviews involving Russian-speaking staff.
Human resources manager Orla Goode told the court she came to the view that Ms Shaskova was “being intimidated” by employees involved in disciplinary interviews to give them confidential work-related information. Ms Goode testified that as a result of that suspicion “it was decided to advance the redundancy” and dismiss her “forthwith”. Ms Shaskova denied that she had ever passed company information to anybody.
The court said it was satisfied that there was “no objective basis” for the suspicion. Last year an Equality Tribunal awarded €5,000 each to 58 Goode Concrete workers – €290,000 in total – for racial discrimination in relation to their contracts of employment and safety documentation.