A photojournalist who accused the professional body for the trade in Ireland of harbouring a “jobs for the boys attitude” has lost her gender discrimination claim at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Norma Burke accused the Press Photographers Ireland CLG (PPI) of belittling and dismissing her when she inquired about membership last year and advanced claims of direct and indirect gender discrimination in breach of the Equal Status Act 2000 against the organisation. The claims were denied.
The PPI, which had denied her claims, was accused by Ms Burke at a hearing in September of acting as “de facto photo Freemasons”, with a “hegemony of male members” and a “massive gender imbalance” – remarks branded “inflammatory”, “prejudicial”, and “completely irrelevant” by the trade group’s barrister.
Ms Burke’s case was that that a membership rule requiring PPI members to be “full-time” press photographers earning 80 per cent of their income from editorial work amounts to indirect discrimination against women on the grounds they are more likely to be working part-time, in full-time education or to have childcare or caring responsibilities.
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Elaine Davern-Wiseman BL, acting for PPI, urged the tribunal to dismiss the case on preliminary grounds, arguing Ms Burke had no standing as she had failed to submit a membership form, and further that the association did not provide a service to the public, and was therefore exempt from the equality legislation. It opted to present no witness testimony and relied instead on its preliminary objections.
The tribunal heard Ms Burke had entered into correspondence with the association in August and September 2023 with a view to joining. One email shown to the tribunal included its membership secretary asking Ms Burke: “If you are a full-time student, that makes you a part-time photographer?” Another showed its president stating: “I can’t progress an application for you given your status as a full-time student. PPAI members are expected to be full-time photographers.”
Ms Burke, who represented herself before the tribunal, said she had “tried to get clarity” from the body on what it meant by “full-time” in her correspondence, but that they “simply wouldn’t tell me”.
“What they were clear about was that my being a full-time student automatically made me ineligible, and I understood that to be on the basis of hours worked,” she said.
She claimed there had been a “refusal to give me proper information on what constituted full-time” and that the association was treating her “as though I was kind of like a child” – taking issue with emails suggesting she speak to her college tutor about applying and wishing her luck with her studies.
Ms Davern-Wiseman, for the PPI, said it required its members to be full-time photographers to uphold “the standards and the standing the organisation has”, she said.
In a decision published on Friday, WRC adjudicator Kara Turner said she was satisfied the professional body’s activities fell within the definition of a “service available to a section of the public”. Ms Burke was entitled to pursue an equality complaint about the communications without having actually submitted an application form, as discrimination in the provision of a service “goes beyond denial or refusal”.
Ms Turner said the emails “undoubtedly” sought to “redirect” Ms Burke’s queries and conclude the conversation. However, the adjudicator was not satisfied there was less favourable treatment or a link to Ms Burke’s gender and concluded that Ms Burke had not drawn an inference of direct gender discrimination.
On the further claim of indirect discrimination in the PPI’s membership criteria, Ms Turner wrote: “The email communications between the parties were not fulsome in the exchange of information and the use of the words ‘full-time’ has clearly given rise to much confusion,” Ms Turner wrote.
She wrote that Ms Burke had failed to answer questions on her working hours and income, while the PPI “made assumptions” about the complainant’s status as a full-time student meaning she was “therefore not a working press photographer”.
However, Ms Turner concluded that the PPI had at no stage stated in its communications with Ms Burke that full-time hours were required – but that Ms Burke had “misconstrued the relevant criteria for membership”.
The adjudicator declared the claims of direct and indirect discrimination “not well founded”.
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