A PROTESTANT man from Belfast has been awarded £13,500 by the Fair Employment Tribunal in the first case taken over positive discrimination within the civil service.
Aware that Protestants were over represented at senior levels within the NI Department of the Environment, a three member panel awarded the position of principal officer to a Catholic three years ago.
The 43 year old Protestant claimed he was better qualified and more experienced than the successful candidate for the post, in the road services central purchasing unit.
The tribunal found the Protestant to be the most suitable candidate before interview and found the interview panel had failed to follow civil service guidelines and instead had opted for a philosophical "holistic" approach.
The Fair Employment chairman, Mr Bob Cooper, said this was the first such case in Northern Ireland.
"Although the civil service still has an under representation of Catholics in senior grades, fair employment legislation requires that individual decisions are not influenced by religion.
"Irrespective of the degree of under representation, it is unlawful to take an applicant's religion into account when making a decision," he said.