Belfast docker who suffered homophobic abuse wins damages

A 51-year-old Belfast docker who suffered homophobic abuse has been awarded £45,000 against Stena Line. An industrial tribunal found that Martin Sheil was the victim of discrimination and harassment at work on the grounds of his sexual orientation and that he was unfairly dismissed.

The tribunal awarded Mr Sheil £37,500 for his unfair dismissal and £7,500 for harassment at work. The Tribunal stated that “the flaws in the investigatory and disciplinary procedure render the dismissal substantively unfair” and that the company had “adopted a far too passive approach to unpleasant banter”.

Stena Line is to appeal the decision.

The tribunal found that Mr Sheil was subjected to comments which amounted to harassment on grounds of sexual orientation over a period of weeks or months. They heard evidence that there was continuous talk and banter amongst his colleagues about Mr Sheil’s sexuality and remarks were made directly to him or indirectly about him in front of other people, for example on the minibus into work.

The tribunal also upheld Mr Sheil’s complaint that he had been unfairly dismissed, following an incident involving him and another member of staff who had been taking part in the homophobic abuse.

It found that Stena’s disciplinary hearing was flawed in that the company did not investigate Mr Sheil’s allegations of derogatory remarks about his sexuality and subsequently did not consider whether his allegations constituted mitigating circumstances. It was critical of the company’s focus on the incident and not on the events that led up to it.

The panel considered that Mr Sheil had contributed partly to his own dismissal by deciding to take action on the abuse himself, rather than reporting it to management. Because of this, his award was reduced by 10 per cent. There was also a 20 per cent reduction to reflect the panel’s estimate of the chance that Mr Sheil’s dismissed was fair.

Stena Line said it was “disappointed” by the tribunal’s decision and that it has lodged an appeal which is scheduled to take place in the Court of Appeal in September this year.

Mr Sheil said this been a difficult period in his life and that he was now looking forward to a fresh start to his life. “I worked hard to keep my private life and work life separate. I endured months of abuse in silence. The reason I took this case was to try and make sure that others don’t have to go through this,” he said.

The North's Equality Commission which supported the case welcomed the ruling. Its chief commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow said the case illustrated "the terrible impact on an individual who faced daily abuse at work because of his sexual orientation".

“Everyone in the workplace – management and staff – must be aware that one person’s banter is another person’s abuse. The company has a duty to protect all staff and to require them to keep verbal abuse out of the workplace,” he added.

Dr Wardlow said that the Tribunal also found that although the company had policies in place that were designed and intended to discourage such behaviour it received no evidence that they took active steps to prevent it. The ruling “posts a warning to all employers that they must take active steps to ensure that their policies against harassment and discrimination are known, understood and practised by their entire workforce,” he added.

“The size of the overall award reflects the seriousness of these issues for employers and employees,” said Dr Wardlow.