Firm ordered to compensate employee for racial abuse

An English pipe fitter who was racially abused and taunted on a Dublin building site was awarded €20,000 in compensation, it was revealed today.

The man, who worked for an engineering company, claimed colleagues called him names and frequently ganged up on him to sing Irish rebel songs.

Some workers never spoke to him and whenever staff had to enter tanks or dangerous spaces they would say “send the Brit in” to make the way safe.

Negative reports about England in newspapers and the performance of the country’s football team in the 2006 World Cup were also read out aloud in his presence.

The man, who requested anonymity, told an Equality Tribunal that shortly after joining the firm in April 2006 the abuse was so bad he began eating lunch in his car instead of the canteen.

Two months after starting work the man was made redundant and he said he was sacked instead of a less experienced Irish worker because he was British.

When the issue of redundancy arose he said one other worker stated aloud “the Brit should be sacked and an Irish man should not be let go”.

Another said to the supervisor: “No Irish man is going out of the gate while we employ a Brit”.

He described his supervisor as intimidating and claimed he joined in with the abuse, even sniggering and laughing.

The company rejected the harassment allegations and claimed the man never complained to his site manager about the abuse.

It also said the man was laid off because he had less service than other workers on the site.

The board of the Equality Tribunal found the man was racially harassed and that some of the acts were of a blatant and intimidatory nature.

The company was ordered to pay the man €20,000 in compensation.

But it ruled the company did not chose the man for redundancy because of his nationality.