Tribunal warns of equality law changes

The director of the Equality Tribunal, Melanie Pine, today warned employers and employees need to be aware of the recent changes to equality legislation brought about through the Equality Act.

Ms Pine was speaking at the Seventh Annual Local Government Human Resource Conference in Cavan today.

Where someone has been dismissed and considers this was for discriminatory reasons on any of the nine grounds, they can now bring a case to the Equality Tribunal. These cases previously went before the Labour Court, she explained.

New pensions legislation also extends protection against discrimination in pensions beyond gender to eight other grounds and the Equality Tribunal is the forum for such cases.

Ms Pine said: “The new legislation transposed three new EU Directives into Irish law – the Race Directive, the Framework Employment Directive and the Gender Equal Treatment Directive. This means employment equality legislation now includes the self-employed and partners.

"The legislation also made many procedural changes in the light of the experience of the equality legislation over the last five years.”

Pointing to the continuing success of the Equality Tribunal’s mediation service, Ms Pine said that over 40% of cases are now opting for mediation and 70% of these are successfully resolved.

The Equality Tribunal (formerly the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations, ODEI) was established in 1999 to hear or mediate complaints of unlawful discrimination.