Travellers awarded £25,000 compensation for discrimination
Two travellers thrown off a labouring job at the Belfast Odyssey Arena after just one day were today awarded more than £25,000 (€37,000) compensation for racial discrimination.
An industrial tribunal unanimously supported the claim by the two cousins they had been discriminated against because they were members of the travelling community .
As an accusation of theft had later been used as an excuse for the dismissal, each man was awarded aggravated damages because of the "highhanded, malicious and insulting" way they had been treated.
They were each awarded a total of £10,000 (€14,825) plus £2,800 (€4,151) in interest run up since the date of the discrimination.
Martin McDonagh, 21, and Patrick Stokes, 22, were supported by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland when they took an events company to the tribunal last October.
During an undefended action against the company, Event 22, they said they had been hired by the Grafton recruitment agency more than three years ago to work for two days preparing the arena for a motorcycle show and dismantling equipment afterwards.
They worked on setting up the show in August 2003 but when they returned to dismantle it three days later Event 22's site manager Colin Mason refused them entry, they said.
They told the inquiry he had refused to say why they were excluded and escorted from the building. A non traveller was given admission as they were ordered out.
Months after the two men lodged their discrimination case Mr Mason, who has since emigrated to New Zealand, claimed he had found them going through the pockets of his jacket in his office and accused them of theft.
Neither men had a criminal record, both denied the accusation and it was never pursued by either Mr Mason or Event 22.
Barrister Suzane Bradley representing them told the tribunal: "Mr Mason acted in an aggressive and hostile manner towards them and they say he did so because they were travellers."
In its decision the tribunal panel said they were satisfied the men had been discriminated against on the grounds of their race.
And they said they considered the case merited the inclusion of an award aggravated damages.
"The respondent persisted in its assertion that the claimants were thieves. It adopted this stance from the outset, yet made no apparent attempt to seek or provide even the slightest evidence in support of the allegation.
"In doing so, the tribunal considers that it has behaved over a period in excess of three years in a manner which is highhanded, malicious and insulting to a degree as bad in the view of the tribunal as the initial act of discrimination on racial grounds."
The tribunal said it was satisfied the two men could compare themselves with the treatment of the settled person who was allowed to go into work.
"Whilst there is no evidence as to the racial make-up of the other workers, the claimants at no stage sought to assert that there were any other members of the Irish traveller community amongst the workforce or that they were allowed to continue working," it added.
Bob Collins, chief commissioner of the Equality Commission, welcomed the decision.
He said the men had been denied the right to work "on spurious and offensive grounds which reflect a common prejudice against travellers".
He added: "It is an emphatic reminder that travellers are all too often the object of openly expressed prejudice in our society, and a timely warning that they are, like all of us, protected from such treatment by the law."
