Tribunal awards €5,000 to 58 workers

FIFTY-EIGHT workers at Goode Concrete Ltd have each been awarded sums of at least €5,000 by the Equality Tribunal for racial discrimination in relation to their contracts of employment and safety documentation.

The tribunal found that contracts and documentation were defective for a number of reasons including that they were not in the language of the workers who were all foreign nationals.

The tribunal also found in favour of two workers who it said were subjected to discriminatory dismissal, and awarded them €10,000 and €25,000 respectively.

But the Equality Tribunal did not find in favour of workers' claims of harassment, victimisation and unequal pay.

Many of the workers, 54 of whom were employed as truck-drivers, two as mechanics and two as general operatives, based part of their claims on a demand for equal pay with a named driver who is of Irish nationality.

Goode Concrete Ltd, which has plants at seven locations across Dublin, Kildare and Galway, denied all the allegations. The company maintained there were "grounds other than race" for the difference in pay between the complainants and the named comparator.

In its decision the tribunal awarded each complainant €5,000 for the effects of the discrimination in relation to contracts of employment and safety regulations. It made a further award of €2,000 to Aleksanders Petrovs for stress suffered as a result of discriminatory treatment when he returned to work late after the Christmas vacation.

The tribunal also ordered Goode Concrete to put in place clear procedures to ensure non-Irish national employees understand their terms and conditions of employment and safety documentation. It also ordered training for management on the provisions of the Employment Equality Acts, 1998-2007.