Discrimination claims up 40%, says new equality agency

Claims for discrimination at work rose by 40% in the first half of 2000, largely reflecting the impact of the recent Employment Equality Act 1998, according to the director of Ireland's new Office of Equality Investigations.

The recently created Office of Equality Investigations issued its first annual report on 27 July 2000. Speaking at the report's launch, the Office's director, Melanie Pine, said that claims for discrimination at work had risen by 40% in the first half of 2000, an increase which largely reflected the effect of the Employment Equality Act 1998 (IE9909144F). More than 50% of new claims include allegations of discrimination on the grounds of family status, age, disability, race and religion, while another 20% cite discrimination because of age alone, and a further 10% discrimination solely because of disability. The director said that she expected claims to "more than double when people have become fully aware of their rights under the Employment Equality Act, and this will rise very significantly again when the Equal Status Act 2000 is brought into force after the summer [of 2000]."

The Employment Equality Act 1998, has greatly extended the grounds for unlawful discrimination beyond gender and marital status - as provided for under the now repealed Employment Equality Act 1977 - to include family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the traveller community. The Act also established the new Office of the Director of Equality Investigations (ODEI) which is an independent statutory office contributing to the achievement of equality by investigating or mediating complaints of unlawful discrimination under the new Act and, before the end of 2000, the Equal Status Act. The Equal Status Act broadly outlaws the same forms of discrimination in places other than the workplace. The 1998 Act also established a new Equality Authority (previously the Employment Equality Agency), which is a more "proactive" organisation charged with promoting equality.

Of discrimination complaints referred during 1999 by subject, pay continues to be the most common, constituting over 44%. This was followed by promotion (22%), appointments (13.6%), sexual harassment (10.2%), conditions (5%), victimisation (3.4%) and pregnancy (1.7%). A total of 51 recommendations under the Equal Pay Act 1974 were issued in 1999, of which 47 were turned down. The high number of failures is largely accounted for by the fact that 38 of the recommendations were issued in response to complaints from males related to the non-payment of a marriage gratuity in one particular bank. In 1999, 47 recommendations were issued under the Employment Equality Act 1977, of which 41 were not upheld (again 26 of the cases concerned male claims for non-payment of marriage gratuity in the same bank).