A SECRETARY who was 17 when she was employed in a Dublin doctor’s surgery has brought a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal claiming she was dismissed because she was pregnant.
At the hearing yesterday, Ms Catherine Collins, wife of Dr Daniel Collins, a qualified nurse and practice manager at his surgery at Annesley Road, Dublin, denied former secretary Amanda Power’s dismissal had anything to do with her pregnancy.
Ms Collins denied claims she had said to Ms Power that if she wanted someone to make mistakes she “would have hired a monkey”.
She also denied that, on one occasion, in a reference to the pregnancy, she had waved a box of condoms in front of her, saying they “would have come in handy”.
Ms Collins said Ms Power had been employed on a six-month temporary contract in August 2009 having completed a secretarial course. She said “accuracy was vital” to the position. She referred to five occasions where, she said, issues arose with Ms Power’s work, adding that there were issues “on an ongoing basis”.
Ms Collins said that on October 29th, 2009, following two verbal warnings, she brought Ms Power into Dr Collins office and verbally informed her that she and Dr Collins had decided to terminate her contract. She claimed Ms Power then told her that she was stressed as she had “just discovered I’m pregnant and it was unplanned”.
Ms Collins said she and Ms Power agreed she would work out her four-week notice as per her contract. She said Ms Power asked for a letter “for the labour” which Ms Collins took to mean social welfare. She told Ms Power she could not furnish her with a letter on that day as she was employed by her husband who was unavailable. Dr Collins wrote her a dismissal letter on November 2nd, 2009.
Barrister for the claimant Michael MacNamee said Ms Power disputed the date on which she was dismissed and claimed that, having told Ms Collins she was pregnant, the practice manager replied: “Hold on, we’ll have to think about that over the weekend.” He said his client was dismissed on the following Monday, November 2nd, 2009.
Mr MacNamee put it to Ms Collins that she had no formal record of the discussion with his client on that date other than noting it in her own diary, which was not available to the tribunal as it contained patient information.
While accepting there were poor performance issues, he said Ms Collins had managed these badly. His client had been constantly criticised and was “worn down with it”. Ms Collins said she had offered “constructive criticism”. The case has been adjourned until September 9th.