Woman wins equality case against golf club

A Tipperary golf club has been ordered to pay £11,000 compensation, plus wage arrears, to a woman employee after the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations (ODEI) upheld complaints that she had been "discriminated against" and "victimised".

Ms May Kennedy took the case against Thurles Golf Club when she failed to secure the position of bar manager. She claimed she had been discriminated against in the selection process and that, after she contacted the Employment Equality Agency, she suffered victimisation from management. She also complained she had been paid less for doing the same work as a male colleague.

The ODEI upheld all three complaints, although it found insufficient evidence to conclude that a fair selection process would have given Ms Kennedy the job.

The equality officer presiding found Ms Kennedy had established a prima-facie case of discrimination in the April 1999 interview. The grounds for the finding included her greater bar experience, including the performance of managerial functions on occasion, along with the fact that the interview board was all male and that there was a lack of transparency in the selection.

The equality officer also found that the successful candidate was, on the evidence presented, better qualified. But it was unclear whether he did in fact hold the position of bar manager. And given the lack of job specification, assessment criteria, marking system or notes, it was also unclear how one person's interview performance could be deemed better.

Upholding the complaint that Ms Kennedy had been victimised by the termination of a discretionary payment for her day off and in attempted changes to the staff roster, the equality officer recommended compensation payments totalling £11,000: £5,000 for distress suffered as a result of discrimination in the selection of bar manager; and £6,000 for the victimisation.

In a separate recommendation, the equality officer found that, before the selection of bar manager, Ms Kennedy's job was "in every respect fully interchangeable" with that of the man subsequently promoted, and that there were no grounds other than gender for the difference in their pay. She recommended the golf club pay her arrears for the period November 1997 to May 1999, in respect of the difference in wages.