A paralympic athlete has won €7,000 in compensation for the “humiliation” she suffered in a confrontation with a security guard who tried to tell her that her guide dog was not allowed in a Dealz shop.
Nadine Lattimore, who represented Ireland in track and field at the London Paralympic Games in 2012, secured the award on foot of a complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 against Dealz Limited after the incident at a store in the Ilac Centre, Dublin 1 on August 23rd last year.
The retail chain has also been ordered to give staff equality training and put up signs in its storefronts stating that service dogs are welcome.
Ms Lattimore’s evidence was that she had gone into the shop to buy balloons and was walking towards the cash register with her guide dog to look for assistance when she heard “a commotion” behind her.
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She only realised it was about her when she heard a man saying “something along the lines of, ‘Excuse me. That dog is not allowed in here’,” Ms Lattimore said.
Ms Lattimore said she “felt humiliated and embarrassed and somewhat vulnerable”. After the man confirmed when she asked that he was security, she asked for the manager, who was already on the way.
The manager said immediately that Pilot, her dog, was “welcome” in the shop and that it had been a mistake that “should never have happened”, the tribunal was told. The manager and the security guard both offered apologies. She also received an explanation about “the rotation of security guards”, the tribunal noted.
“Outside the initial confrontation with the security guard she did not fault the staff,” wrote adjudicator Penelope McGrath in her decision.
“Her concern, however, was that this situation had arisen at all. As a person with a disability, she feels she should not be put into a position of having to identify her disability or explain it,” the adjudicator wrote.
Because of the presence of the guide dog and “all the associated paraphernalia” there could be “no ambiguity” about Ms Lattimore’s disability on the day, Ms McGrath noted.
She wrote that it appeared Dealz accepted Ms Lattimore’s account, as it had not brought potential witnesses to the WRC to challenge her testimony, and rejected the company’s argument that she had failed to meet the notification requirements of the Equal Status Act.
“I do appreciate that [the store’s] management swept in to ameliorate the situation as quickly as they could and in her evidence the complainant very fairly acknowledged that fact,” Ms McGrath wrote.
She ordered Dealz Ltd to pay Ms Lattimore €7,000 in compensation. She also gave a direction that the retailer train its staff on the Equal Status Act “on a repeat basis” and put up signs stating: “Guide dogs and assistance dogs welcome.”
This was so that Dealz could “demonstrate its continued commitment and compliance with the Equal Status Act,” she said.
Welcoming the outcome in a statement issued on her behalf by Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind (IGDB), Ms Lattimore said: “This is a situation I encounter on a regular basis. I had no choice but to advocate not just for myself but for the rights of others who are vision-impaired.”
A spokesperson for Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind pointed to the findings of a survey it conducted among its service dog clients late last year which found some 83 per cent of them “had a negative experience” while trying to access services and amenities.
“The decision of the WRC recognises that the onus is on businesses and public service providers to ensure that all staff on their premises, including outsourced security staff, are regularly trained on the provisions of the Equal Status Acts,” the spokesperson said.
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