COMPLAINTS to the Employment Equality Agency about sexual harassment outnumbered complaints about working conditions last year, according to the agency's annual report.
There were 123 legal complaints relating to sexual harassment compared to 111 about working conditions. The EEA received almost 100 inquiries a week, representing a 33 per cent increase on 1995.
While sexual harassment continued to constitute the majority of legal complaints, more than half of the general inquiries concerned maternity rights and pregnancy.
The EEA chairwoman, Ms Kate Hayes, said the agency had identified a number of "discriminatory practices experienced by pregnant women, including a deterioration of working conditions during pregnancy, return to work issues and a failure to discount maternity related sick leave".
There were 31 applications to the agency's board for legal representation. Of these, 21 were accepted. The agency brought these cases to the Labour Court and equality officers.
Flexible working arrangements accounted for 152 general inquiries and there were 117 inquires about equal opportunity policies.
The Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, who was presented with the report, said he believed there was a "continuing need, into the future, for the Department of Equality and Law Reform".
Ms Carmel Foley, the EEA chief executive, said the report detailed case studies from the Labour Court and Labour Relations Commission for the first time. These highlighted the "very real problems" behind the statistics, she said.
The Labour Court and LRC heard 44 cases concerning equality issues last year, including the 21 represented by the EEA. The remainder were represented by unions, private solicitors or the individuals themselves.
One in four of the cases was successful, with the highest award being £3,200 to a woman who claimed she was unfairly dismissed after she complained about sexual harassment.
The EEA also monitors national and local newspapers for advertisements which express a preference for one sex or one marital status. Such advertisements have "dropped to negligible levels", the report said, "presumably as a result of greater awareness".
