Goldsmith gets court order restraining jewellers from dismissing her

A goldsmith who claims she was unfairly dismissed less than a month after she commenced employment with Weir & Sons jewellers yesterday secured a High Court order restraining her dismissal or suspension from the company.

The interim order was granted to Mr Jeremy Maher for Ms Martina Keating, a goldsmith and gemologist, of St Laurence Road, Chapelizod, Dublin, against Weir & Sons Ltd.

In an affidavit, Ms Keating (32) said she was the only woman in an all-male environment while working with the company in its workshop. She said she was made to feel ill at ease and had received little or no assistance as might be expected should be accorded to a new employee.

She said that during a meeting at the company, she had said she had never been made to feel so inadequate or unwelcome as she had in the employment of Weir's. "I said that I believed the problem was not with me personally, it would have happened with any woman they employed in their workshop."

Ms Keating said she began work with Weirs on January 4th last and had moved from Waterford to Dublin to take up the position. When she began work, she said the soldering system which she was assured would be present was not. Three days later she noticed a marked coolness towards her.

On January 13th she was told that another staff member had complained she was not complying with the "hierarchy" in the company. That staff member told her he had not made such a complaint but also told her he had been told that management had already decided she was not suitable and would not be kept beyond six months and that this had been decided at a board meeting on January 12th.

Ms Keating said she discussed the conversation with a member of management who denied that a decision had been made to dismiss her. For the next four days, she was either being ignored or being asked if she had made her decision to leave by the staff member who had told her a decision had been made that she would not be kept. She said he told her management had put its "evil eye on me" and had done similar things to other employees in the past.

Following a conversation with a member of management on January 18th in which she again put the allegations that a decision was made to let her go after six months, she was told that she was suspended pending investigation and was to be paid for that week and would be notified in due course.

At a meeting on January 23rd, Ms Keating said she was constantly pressured to resign, a step she did not want to take. She was being forced to resign because of the oppressive atmosphere in the work place. On January 28th, she received a latter from Weirs stating the company "with regret accepts your resignation".

Ms Keating said she did not resign but the company was purporting to dismiss her. She had not received the salary payments she was promised and, if the company was permitted to dismiss her in this manner, her reputation in the small world of goldsmiths and gemologists would be ruined.