A teachers' union is to seek "urgent talks" with the Department of Education following a record award by the Equality Tribunal to a Wicklow teacher who it found was victimised by her school.
The tribunal awarded €127,000 to Ms Margaret McGinn, a teacher at St Anthony's Boys National School, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, in a decision published yesterday. It found that she was discriminated against because of her gender in an interview for the position of principal of the school and was subsequently victimised when she complained about the matter.
The equality officer, Ms Gerardine Coyle, described the victimisation claim as the worst she had ever encountered. There had been a "blatant disregard" for Ms McGinn by the school and a disrespect for the investigation process of the tribunal, she said.
She ordered the school to pay Ms McGinn two years' salary, of about €117,000, plus €10,000 in compensation for the stress she suffered. This is the highest award in the tribunal's history.
Ms Coyle said the award was intended to reflect the seriousness of the victimisation, the repeated breaches of procedures by the school's board of management and its repeated destruction of interview notes. "Damaging untruths" had been told by her employer to both her colleagues and the Department of Education.
Ms McGinn had told the tribunal that when she was interviewed for the post of principal, she was questioned about her suitability for the job in light of her gender, given that it was an all boys' school. A male candidate was appointed to the position.
She said the chairman of the board of management, Father Eamon Clarke, who chaired the interview panel, subsequently visited the school staff room and provided details of the selection process to teachers there.
Of Ms McGinn, he said: "Bean maith í ach bean sa phost i scoil lán buachaillí, ní bhéadh sé sin oiriúnach." ("She is a good woman, but a woman in the position in an all boys' school would not be appropriate.")
Ms McGinn was again unsuccessful in two further interviews for the post, which took place after it was held that the rules of procedure for school boards of management had been breached.
She said that following her challenge to the initial interview, her treatment by local clergy changed and she had stopped receiving acknowledgement for her voluntary work as organist and director of the boys' school choir. In a letter to the Department, Father Clarke described her complaint of discrimination as "spiteful".
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation, which represented Ms McGinn before the tribunal, said it would seek urgent talks with the Department on the equality officer's recommendations. Ms Coyle ordered that all persons who act as interviewers for national school positions receive comprehensive training and called for a review of the appointment of selection boards.
