The head of the State's equality service has won an equal pay award against her own Government Department, which must now pay her the same as senior male colleagues. This will mean an increase in salary for Ms Deirdre Sweeney of £8,500 a year to almost £40,000, as well as arrears estimated at £28,000.
Ms Sweeney argued that the equality service, by its very nature, was an area dealing with "women's issues". She said the salary scales attached to it reflected "stereotypical attitudes to `women's' and `men's' work and the pay that they should attract."
Ms Sweeney is based in the Labour Relations Commission. The directors of the other three services at the LRC are all men and all on the Civil Service principal officer grade. She is an assistant principal officer.
She took her case to the commission in September 1994 and it endorsed her claim. However, when she approached the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which is the commission's paymaster, it refused to sanction the promotion.
Ms Sweeney then took the only option left, referring the case to her own equality service. It has now been duly heard by an equality officer.
Ms Sweeney made a detailed submission in which she argued that she was the head of a division of the commission and had comparable responsibilities, expertise and work to her male colleagues.
She said that the commission's other divisions, the conciliation service, the advisory service and administration, dealt specifically with industrial relations. These were traditionally male areas.
At the time she lodged her claim, Ms Sweeney said, there were no females employed in either area.
The Department argued that Ms Sweeney's pay differential was based on grounds "other than sex". It also argued that the work of the Equality Service was "detached somewhat from the Labour Relations Commission."
The equality officer interviewed Ms Sweeney on her work as head of the equality service and interviewed senior officials in the Department and found otherwise. She said Ms Sweeney did like work to her male colleagues and must be paid accordingly.
An embarrassed Department confirmed yesterday that it did not intend appealing the decision to the Labour Court.