Irish woman ' targeted in fire service conspiracy'

An Irish 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, a tribunal heard today.

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

Ms Neylan, originally from Kilcolgan, County Galway, told a tribunal in Reading yesterday that she had been told to “f*** 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 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” (correct) written on her telephone headset container and her computer login name being changed to “Irish Ann”.

On one occasion, the tribunal heard “being Irish” was included in a list of “sins” written on a whiteboard for which people would have to pay a penalty to Comic Relief.

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

The tribunal heard today that Ms Mitchell’s “punishment” had been to be sent back to her normal rank, ending a temporary promotion.

Assistant Divisional Officer Mark Pinnell, who later investigated the incidents, told the tribunal today that he did not consider the ending of her temporary promotion as any punishment “at all”.

He told the tribunal today: “I would say punishment is demotion. That’s putting somebody back to their existing rank, it’s not demotion.”

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.

The tribunal heard that in his statement 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 told the tribunal: “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.”

The tribunal heard that after Ms Neylan’s complaint of victimisation under the Race Discrimination Act had been lodged with an industrial tribunal, a file containing sensitive psychiatric and medical information was kept at the control room where other members of staff were able to see it.

Ms Neylan’s former line manager Ellen Warner revealed to the tribunal today that she had seen the sensitive document, which contained medical and family histories, although she said that she had not read it.

Mrs Warner told the tribunal that she had asked a colleague if she could look in the file, which also contained witness statements from fellow fire officers involved in the dispute, and was told: “Yes, why not, everybody’s allowed to read them.”