Council appeals discrimination award to ‘born-again Christian’

Questions have been raised over a €70,000 award to a ‘born-again Christian’ who lost his job after being discriminated against on religious grounds.

Tipperary County Council is appealing the ruling by the Equality Tribunal which found South Tipperary Co Council, now incorporated into a county body, had discriminated on religious grounds against former executive engineer, John McAteer.

It was claimed Mr McAteer was sacked after he continued to preach religious beliefs during work hours, in spite of warnings from management. His solicitor, JJ Fitzgerald, yesterday confirmed the council lodged an appeal to the Labour Court but did not comment further.

Both sides are to make written submissions on the case before a likely oral hearing before the Labour Court. The move by the council is a gamble as the Labour Court can increase the award — in this case, to €108,000.

The tribunal found the effects of the dismissal on Mr McAteer “were very serious” and he had, since then, only succeeded in securing part-time work. Mr McAteer has been an evangelical Christian since 1990. His religion requires him to speak to people about Jesus. He started work with South Tipperary County Council in 2007 after serving 10 years in the North Tipperary local authority. Five months into his new job, a complaint was made about him sharing his faith with other staff.

He was told to stop sharing his religious beliefs during work hours, but in May 2008, an official in the HR office saw Mr McAteer talk to a man for 20 minutes, and to two teenage girls for 10 minutes. The official approached the man and the two teenagers and found Mr McAteer had been talking about Jesus.

The council initially suspended Mr McAteer and directed that he receive counselling for his compulsion. But in 2010, he was witnessed talking to an electrician about his religious beliefs and was reported.

Mr McAteer was subsequently dismissed. The council argued Mr McAteer was not discriminated against, as he was free to practise his religion outside working hours.

But the equality officer in the case, Marian Duffy found a significant number of council staff had been asked to monitor him, including him speaking to a member of the public.

She said that there was no evidence the council had been brought into disrepute.