AN Irish woman sacked from her CIA job at the US embassy in London has started a legal action alleging victimisation after winning a sexual harassment case against the US government at a London industrial tribunal.
The case being brought by Ms Mary Fogarty threatens to cause severe embarrassment to the State Department, which prides itself on its anti discrimination and anti harassment policies.
Ms Fogarty (36), an Irish citizen, was sacked from her job as administrative assistant with the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a subsidiary of the CIA. The man found to have harassed her is still on the staff.
The London tribunal's judgment, delivered four months ago but unpublicised, strongly criticised the way the case was handled. It concluded that the US government, acting through the FBIS, knew what was going on but failed to investigate properly.
The tribunal held that the resulting stress, for which Ms Fogarty had medical treatment, affected her performance and caused her dismissal. It awarded her £3,000 for injury to feelings. Compensation for the loss of her job, worth £17,000 a year with benefits, will be decided later.
Ms Fogarty, who lives in east London, has since been turned down for seven other posts at the embassy, despite US government service dating back to 1984. She has now accused the US of victimising her for taking the case to a tribunal.
The tribunal accepted Ms Fogarty's evidence that senior administrative assistant, Mr Martin Thomas (45), a father of three, made suggestive remarks to her, culminating in an incident in November or December, 1993, soon after she started work, when he licked her ear and asked: "What's pink and likes oral sex?"
On other occasions, she claimed he asked her about being an Irish Catholic and whether she was a virgin; told her he liked "big girls" while staring at her chest; deliberately stood very close to her; insisted on telling her about his sex life and those of colleagues; and told her in the presence of co workers that her blouse was undone.
Ms Fogarty told the tribunal that Mr Thomas, a British employee who was assigned to train her, treated her coldly and avoided her after she complained to her American boss, Mr James Thayer, in January, 1994. Mr Thayer said in a statement to the tribunal that he had only learned of the allegations a year later, but the tribunal accepted Ms Fogarty's version, including her evidence that Mr Thayer had laughed loudly and said: "Now you know the colour of Martin."
Despite satisfactory ratings on earlier performance reviews, she said Mr Robert Thompson, who took over from Mr Thayer in August, 1994, tried to persuade her to leave. He wrote negative performance assessments, and in February, 1995, recommended her employment be terminated, saying she was unable to work "agreeably" with Mr Thomas.
Three weeks later, she claimed she was marched out of the embassy by Mr Thompson. She was given another embassy job on a one year contract at £14,000, but has not worked since the end of June.
The tribunal criticised an FBIS in house investigation into the harassment allegations, set up more than a year after Ms Fogarty first complained to Mr Thayer, and only after she went to the acting ambassador, Mr Tim Deal.
Ms Catherine Danner, the FBIS employee who carried out the investigation, concluded that Ms Fogarty made her allegations only when her job was threatened, despite interviews with four people backing up her story that she had complained a year earlier.
The report concluded that he should not be disciplined but warned "to be more circumspect in his behaviour". Ms Danner's conclusion was "influenced by expediency rather than ascertaining objectively the truth of the matter", the tribunal said.