Increasing age-related discrimination against workers, according to WRC report

Disputes over pay were the most common type of complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last year, its latest annual report shows.

There were substantial rises in the number of complaints in relation to alleged discrimination against members of the Traveller community and against workers on the basis of their age.

Of 12,780 specific complaints lodged with the WRC over the course of 2022, just over a quarter, 3,363 related to remuneration while discrimination and equality issues were at the heart of 1,851. Allegations of unfair dismissal prompted 1,518. Working hours, as well as terms and conditions, were other factors commonly featured.

The commission has a wide remit and deals with complaints based on allegations of discrimination in relation to the treatment of the public by businesses or their staff under the Equal Status Acts and between employees by their employer under the Employment Equality Acts.

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Complaints lodged by the public against businesses by those who felt they had been discriminated against on the basis of a disability remained the single largest group under the Equal Status Acts. But the number of actual cases was down by more than half, from 362 to 157, over the course of the year.

In contrast, the number rooted in allegations of members of the Traveller Community being discriminated against rose by 147 per cent, from 61 to 150.

In terms of the workplace, there was a 176 per cent rise in allegations of age discrimination (up from 186 to 514). The number of cases in which gender-based discrimination was claimed reduced from 316 to 286, an almost 10 per cent fall.

Post-pandemic

In other areas of its work, the WRC said it had recovered about €1.4 million in unpaid wages during the 12 months to the end of December.

The report suggests the commission’s level of interaction has increased with the return to normal working after the pandemic with face-to-face hearings being held again. The number of calls to its information line was up 7 per cent to 59,700 during the year while visits to its website increased by 20 per cent to 4.2 million and the volume of actual adjudication cases heard was 4,253, a 28 per rise on 2021.

About 20 per cent of complaints raised in 2022 had been dealt with by the end of the year. Of the more than 300 WRC adjudications appealed to the Labour Court last year, just over half, 166, were upheld while 23 per cent were amended and 22 per cent overturned.

Minister of State for Employment Affairs Neale Richmond said it has been “a very successful year” for the commission. He highlighted the roughly 6,000 workplace inspections that took place over the course of 2022 and the 700 visits to restaurants and bars to promote awareness of the new regulations in relation to tips and gratuities.

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On track: Students from St Andrews NS and St Oliver Plunkett School in Malahide at the Casino Model Railway Museum for the launch of a new interactive children’s railway exhibit. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill