Woman bullied by fellow teachers gets €35,000 in landmark case

A TEACHER forced to resign after being bullied by her colleagues for criticising the union, won a landmark ruling yesterday, when the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled she was constructively dismissed.

The traumatised teacher, Patricia O’Shea from Ovens, Co Cork, said she encountered hostility from colleagues after criticising her union, ASTI, during a pay dispute two years ago. She was forced to resign her post at Mount Mercy College in Cork because of the harassment and bullying.

Mrs O’Shea, an English and music teacher who has since assumed a post at Bandon Grammar School, successfully sued the board of management of Mount Mercy under the Unfair Dismissals Act. The tribunal, in the first case involving a teacher being bullied by fellow teachers, ruled by a 2-1 majority decision that she was constructively dismissed. She was awarded damages of €35,000. Neither party commented on the findings.

The staff room dispute in the Model Farm Road school arose after O’Shea wrote a letter to a newspaper expressing reservations about the manner in which her union, ASTI, was pursuing a pay claim. She was on sick leave at the time and, following publication of the letter on Friday, March 23, 2001, Mrs O’Shea’s received menacing, anonymous, phonecalls to her home. The calls, with the assistance of gardaí, were later traced to the Cork school.

In the meantime, Mrs O’Shea requested the school board, through college principal and secretary Mary Murphy, to investigate a number of complaints against fellow teacher and school steward, Sally O’Donovan, who is also an ASTI branch organiser. Mrs O’Shea’s letter, however, was not presented to the board of management.

Claiming that the complaints and rumours were damaging to her health and reputation, Mrs O’Shea demanded a speedy investigation by the board. The tribunal ruling found the failure of school management to properly investigate the issues were a dereliction of its responsibility, and left Mrs O’Shea in a vulnerable position.

The tribunal also ruled the principal did not handle the dispute in an even-handed manner. And it noted, on Mrs O’Shea’s last day at the school, hostility towards her still existed.