Payout ruling over ‘anti-Irish’ job panel

A WOMAN in England has been awarded compensation after an employment adjudicator ruled she was discriminated against because she was Irish.

Northern Irish woman, Dr Pat Walls, was awarded £35,000 (€51,377) in a unanimous ruling by the British Employment Appeals tribunal.

She instituted the case because she felt Warwick University was promoting lesser qualified people on the grounds of race.

The university disputed this and said it had made its judgments on the basis of merit.

The university has decided to appeal the case not on grounds of cost but because it does not feel it was guilty of race discrimination.

The payment of the money is on hold until the outcome of the appeal.

Dr Walls, 44, who lives in Gloucestershire, had applied for a job as a research fellow in 2005. The position involved working with the university’s centre of ethnicity and mental health.

Dr Walls is a specialist in this area and had worked with one of the university’s interview boards before applying for the job.

This work had involved investigating the mental health of a number of ethnic communities, including the Irish in Glasgow.

The tribunal heard how Dr Walls argued that the latest research in South Asian and Caribbean communities would be enriched by cross-referencing it to Irish and Chinese people.

The tribunal ruled the interview panel had made their judgment based on the performance on the day rather than the criteria laid out in the job reference.

It also said the university’s panel had made a decision assuming Dr Walls would not be enthusiastic about the work unless it involved Irish people.

Speaking in England, Dr Walls said she was very pleased with the tribunal’s ruling.