Television company Virgin Media Ireland has succeeded in having a €30,000 discrimination award to a long-serving schedule planner overturned.
This follows the Labour Court overturning – on appeal by Virgin Media Ireland – a compensation award of €30,000 to presentation and scheduling assistant Sian Shepherd made by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in April of this year.
At the WRC, adjudicator Davnet O’Driscoll found that Ms Shepherd was discriminated against by Virgin Media Ireland as a parent after concluding that the selection process for appointment of the planning or scheduling team lead was tainted with discrimination.
Ms Shepherd had availed of maternity leave between August 2021 and August 2022 and, in early October 2022, Virgin Media Ireland advertised internally for the position of scheduling team lead and Ms Shepherd and four colleagues applied for the position.
Ms Shepherd was unsuccessful, following being placed joint third in the selection process.
In the Labour Court ruling, deputy chairman Alan Haugh found that Ms Shepherd had not established any facts from which it would be possible for the court to infer that she may have been treated less favourably by Virgin Media Ireland on grounds of her family status.
After a hearing in the appeal case earlier this month, Mr Haugh stated, by Ms Shepherd’s own admission, the candidates that were placed ahead of her in the promotional competition were both parents of young children.
He said: “It follows that their family status is the same as hers. In those circumstances, and in the absence of the complainant establishing any other relevant facts to ground her complaint, it is not open to the court to find that the complainant has made out a prima facie case of discrimination on the family-status ground.”
In a submission, Ms Shepherd stated that “prior to maternity leave I was the most senior member of the team, with the most experience and trained every other member, including the successful candidate”.
At the WRC, Virgin Media Ireland contended that Ms Shepherd’s complaint of discrimination due to family status “is groundless and misconceived”.
The firm argued that the decision to appoint another member of staff to team lead “followed a robust, fair and transparent recruitment process”.
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