Irishwoman ‘suffered conspiracy of neglect’

A GALWAY woman who claims to have been told to get out of Britain because she did not speak the Queen’s English suffered a “conspiracy of neglect” by her employers, an employment tribunal in England heard yesterday.

Ann Neylan, aged 39, believes she was subjected to ridicule and humiliation after making a complaint over the alleged racial abuse in the control room of the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Ms Neylan, who is originally from Kilcolgan, Co Galway, told a tribunal in Reading on Monday that she had been told to “f**k off home” because she did not speak “the Queen’s English”.

She claims that on two occasions - in 2002 and 2003 - a colleague had made jokes about her “relatives” being “at it” when the fire service’s control room was dealing with fires on gypsy sites.

Other incidents which she said left her feeling targeted for being Irish, included finding the word “Paddyy” (sic) written on her telephone headset container and her computer login name being changed to “Irish Ann.”

The incidents reached a head in a conversation about her pronunciation of the word “daft”, which led to one colleague, Liz Mitchell, who was also her temporary watch commander, telling her: “I suggest that if you don’t start speaking the Queen’s English, f**k off home.”

Earlier Ms Neylan’s partner, Peter Bird, cited what he saw as a string of shortcomings in the way her complaints had been dealt with by her managers.

Mr Bird had said: “She became convinced it was some sort of conspiracy to drive her out of the workplace.”

When asked what he meant by his use of the word conspiracy, Mr Bird said: “It was a conspiracy of neglect, neglecting to follow the procedures.”

Tribunal chairman Richard Byrne asked who he thought was involved in the conspiracy.

Mr Bird replied: “I would just say the senior management of the brigade, they failed to protect her.”