Tribunal awards €10,000 to teacher

A PREGNANT teacher has been awarded €10,000 in compensation after she was found to have been the victim of discrimination while interviewing for a job at a school.

Anne Murray, a teacher in her thirties from Belcoo in Co Fermanagh, said she was “shocked” when she was asked about her pregnancy at an interview in November 2002 at Scoil Mhuire primary school, Swanlinbar, Co Cavan.

She told the interview panel that she would be taking maternity leave in December if she got the job and had already mentioned her pregnancy on her CV.

When she failed to get the job she lodged a complaint with the Equality Tribunal. The Equality Officer found that a member of the school’s interview panel had asked an indirectly discriminatory question and also had not followed guidelines for employment as set out by the Department of Education & Science.

The tribunal heard the eventual appointee to the position at the school was promoted to deputy principal a few months later.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Ms Murray said yesterday. “I recommend that others who experience discrimination use the legal means available to counteract such injustice.” She had taught at Columban’s Primary School in Belcoo since 1990, after training as a teacher in St Mary’s Training College in Belfast graduating in 1990.

School representatives had denied that Anne Murray’s application had been turned down on gender grounds. The three-strong interview panel had included the chairperson of the board of management, the principal of the school and the principal of another school in the area.

The principal of Scoil Mhuire was ordered to pay Ms Murray €10,000 compensation, relating to compensation for distress and breach of rights under the 1998 Act. The Equality Officer did not consider that any difficulty in appointing substitute teachers to fill in for those on maternity leave justified asking Ms Murray when she would be able to assume a position at the school following her pregnancy.

The teacher thanked the INTO for representing her at the Tribunal, and reacting to the decision, INTO general secretary John Carr said the findings emphasised again the need for training for everyone involved in selection processes on issues of objectivity and good practice.

The case was the only one of four employment-related cases brought before the Equality Tribunal in March to be upheld.