Young offenders centre manager wins bias pay-out

A Protestant woman denied overtime at a Northern Ireland young offenders centre has been awarded £31,000 (€46,800) compensation, it emerged today.

Hilary Doudican, a manager at Lisnevin Juvenile Justice facilities in Co Down, received the payout for religious and sexual discrimination stretched over three years.

She was also victimised when a colleague she took her case against later accused her of making sectarian remarks, a Fair Employment ruling found.

The adjudication in Belfast said: “The applicant found this repeat situation to be humiliating and that it undermined her in the eyes of not only her own team but also other teams.”

Mrs Doudican, a centre manager and qualified social worker, worked at Lisnevin for 18 years before it was closed and relocated to Rathgael last year.

Her grievance was with Damien Fitzpatrick, a Catholic on the same grade, who she said failed to follow proper procedures and offer her his overtime in December 1999 until ordered to by the director, Michael Logue.

Mr Fitzpatrick’s lawyers claimed he tried to contact her, but she had chosen not to return his calls until the day before.

Deputy centre managers were only approached to check their availability, he argued.

However, the tribunal decided no serious attempts had been made.

“Mr Fitzpatrick only approached colleagues who were male, and three out of four of whom were Roman Catholics, in his quest to obtain cover for his shifts on December 4 and 5, 1999,” the ruling said.

“He actually nominated Mr Begley, a male Roman Catholic, who did not have the basic qualification of social worker to permit him to act as a centre manager while disregarding a female Protestant (with) appropriate qualification to act as centre manager.

“The tribunal inferred from these facts that religious belief and sex had played a significant part in Mr Fitzpatrick’s failure to approach the applicant timeously to offer her the overtime.”

Mr Fitzpatrick later spent three months off work on sick leave from January 2000 due to stress.

In April that year he sent a confidential report to Mr Logue detailing allegations that Mrs Doudican asked another member of staff if two young people allowed home leave were Catholics.

The issue was investigated internally and no case was found to answer.

“The applicant felt that her professional practice was being discussed and criticised, and that such conversations could have been overheard by other persons including the young people, and she felt shattered and upset by this,” according to the adjudication.

Mrs Doudican’s third case related to a further alleged failure by Mr Fitzpatrick to offer her his overtime shifts in December 2002.

Finding that the situation was linked to the earlier complaints, the tribunal concluded: “In the treatment afforded to the applicant there was an ongoing element of victimisation for having lodged the previous complaints.”

Compensation of £8,274 (€12,5000), £11,835 (€17,900) and £11,265 (€17,000) was awarded following a decision reached in May.

But as details emerged for the first time, the Equality Commission, which helped Mrs Doudican take the case, urged employers to follow the laws.

Chief Commissioner Dame Joan Harbison said: “They must show that all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination are unacceptable in the workplace.

“This applies not only to recruitment and promotion, but also, as in this case, to arrangements such as overtime cover and how complaints and grievances are dealt with.”