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A PRIMARY SCHOOL teacher has been awarded €54,000 after she was discriminated against on the grounds of age, religion and sexual orientation when she applied for a job as school principal.
The female teacher, who was deputy principal at the time, made the complaint against the unidentified school where she has worked since 2003, saying that the person who was offered the job was considerably younger and less experienced.
The woman originally applied to be school principal in the summer of 2011. The initial interview process was ruled invalid and the position was re-advertised.
The teacher attended a second interview as part of the new interview process, but said she was taken aback when the interview board was made up of the same three people as the first interview board, which was a breach of the rules of procedure.
She said that one of the board members, who was a nun, asked inappropriate questions during the interview, including one about the teacher’s personal thoughts on the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism and its approach to religion. In response, the teacher said that she had mentioned the Forum in her application as a current issue in education, and said the school was already accommodating children of different faiths and none.
However she noted that the question made her very insecure, as she had no way of knowing whether her answered would earn her a ‘black mark’, given that she was asked for her personal, rather than professional, opinion on it.
The teacher said she was upset when the nun followed this up with the question, “What about the homos?”.
In the Equality Tribunal ruling on the case, the complainant, who is married, said that the question unsettled and upset her. She responded by saying that there were gay and lesbian teachers already teaching in schools.
The nun denied asking the question or making any statements about sexual orientation.
The teacher also said that her qualifications and experience were disregarded, and that there was a lack of transparency in how the criteria for assessment of the applications were applied.
The woman’s union contacted the school’s patron, Dermot Clifford, who was then the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, to raise the issues, and was told that the matters had been “rebutted substantively by the Board of Management”.
The school denied discriminating against the teacher in any way, saying that the “minor irregularities” during the interview process had affected both of the candidates equally, and that the woman did not perform well enough during her interview to be successful.
The investigation by the Equality Tribunal found that the person who got the job had been less qualified than the teacher who made the complaint, and that it had been a prima facie case of discrimination on the grounds of age in terms of access to promotion.
The Tribunal found that there was a ‘significant difference’ in the qualifications and experience of the two candidates, and that the complainant was far more experienced and qualified.
Questioned
When asked, the nun said that she questioned the teacher about the Forum on Pluralism and Patronage because she was concerned about the complainant would do with children whose parents did not want them to take religion classes.
When further asked about her question on ‘What about about homos?’, the nun and the other two interviewers denied that it had taken place. However, the Equality Tribunal investigator questioned the nun’s claims to not remember the question, and said they were satisfied that she did indeed ask the question.
“It is precisely because the interview board did not know Ms A’s sexual orientation that I interpret Sr B’s question as an attempt to ascertain the complainant’s sexual orientation without asking the question directly,” the investigator wrote in the ruling.
The teacher was awarded €54,000, which is one year’s salary, in compensation.
The full ruling can be seen on the Equality Tribunal website here.
First published 8.16am
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“Nuns! Reverse reverse reverse”
As she says herself, the Nun “was concerned about [what] the complainant would do with children whose parents did not want them to take religion classes”.
Is the implication here that the candidate was to ignore the wishes of the parents entirely, because religious education shoudn’t have an opt-out? Astonishing.
Should we all be Homo sapiens now Sister?
Another good reason why church control of schools must end. They have divested 1 in around 3 years!
And that one was a church of Ireland school!
And why are there phoney boards running the recruitment and not the DOE . Major changes are required .
….because, like every other system and process in this country, central government do not want the responsibility which would make the liable in any court case…… imagine what this person would have been awarded if it was the state that was found to be discriminatory
Good point Adrian. She got what she deserved, no more no less. It’s up to the parents to put pressure on the schools. When you make the state run it you disempower the parents. Look at the USA. Parents have no control whatsoever. They don’t even get to choose which public school they go to in a lot of states.
Actually, primary school Boards have no control over recruitment, thanks to Dept Ed regulations. Recruitment is controlled by the Patron – usually the local Bishop for catholic schools
“Saying that the person who was offered the job was considerably younger and less experienced”
Surely that’s discrimination in itself??
Exactly. More experience doesn’t mean you’re better.
That was just one statement in what was probably a very long case. If there was a good reason to skip over the more experienced one they probably would have given it in evidence.
The most homophobic people out there, are generally, closet homosexuals themselves. That nun probably plays the banjo while watching Ellen de Generes in her room.
True, when I hear priests on the tv my gaydar goes mental, they’re ashamed of themselves for being gay, sad situation really.
Ye the most anti semite people are usually closet jews.
Most people that call other people anti-semitic claim to be pro free speech but are actually anti free speech and also need to look up the term semite. You know nothing jon snow.
Lord Flynn. It was a joke, I was been jovial.. Enjoy it
Oy gevalt. You outed me!
Communist and hard left Jews can be anti-Semitic.
In fairness, I think the lady in question had a lucky escape not getting the position if the interview process was anything to go by
She was already working in the school though. Humiliating to have someone less qualified put in above you.
If the person was better, smarter, more capable, they SHOULD have been put in above her.
Sure look at the numbskulls in Govt, they mistake corruption for being smart and they’re above us in power and wealth. But they have more EXPERIENCE than us in the Dail. Yet a kindergarten child would run the country better.
Schools are not the same as government. If she was manifestly incompetent then the nuns would have argued that. Since the court couldn’t find any good reason not to give her the job they went with the most likely option.
Wonderful transcription typo there: ‘…accommodating children of different faiths and nuns’.
Yeah, that was my fault. Quite the typo! It’s been fixed now.
I’m sure you pursued the appropriate avenues Tordelback, by sending a “Send a correction” to the author also?
Not at all, I thought it was way too good to miss!
Change it back, change it back.
Why does the church have anything to do with educating our children!!
Jack, spot on, they’re just a bunch of Homos :)
“Our”? It’s up to you where you send your kids. Parents can demand an end to religious indoctrination if they so wish and send their kids elsewhere if they’re fail to persuade.
What are those religious FREAKS doing anywhere near education in this day and age? Seriously, it’s high time the church was banned from running schools. The creeps.
I wonder how long a comment would be left up if you called a gay person a freak ? Obviously ok to call the religious freaks though….
There are many gay freaks and religious freaks. It’s fair game to identify people from both groups when the evidence supports the accusation.
One chooses to believe and therefore are open to ridicule. One does not choose to be gay so the same standards cannot be applied.
Says who Luke ? Did you just make up the rules on who it’s ok to insult yourself ? Any more of your rules you would like to share with us ?
Tony doesn’t understand Lukes comment. Awkward…..
Oh I understand it ok. You think you are something special because you are gay. It’s ok for you to ridicule others but nobody can ridicule you. You would be up in arms if were to call you a freak.
Yes Tony I would. Nobody had called you a freak though. You’re not quit following though are you…..
*quite
patronising
While some Nuns were evil bit_hes there lots of Nuns who worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor and the sick were brilliant and I wonder if the Nuns were still in control of our hospitals would the health situation be as bad as it is now?
You mean bad nuns like Mother Teresa. Money mad, spent very little of what she got on the poor. Preferred the poor to suffer and offer it up to her god.
The was a doc on RTE recently which looked at the work being done by nuns in Africa. One spritely old nun was discussing how she helps the local LBGTs and sees them as equal to everyone else. The presenter remarked how the head of her church would disagree with her about the equality to which she replied: “Well, he’s wrong”!
Fair play to her!
What homos was she referring to? homophobes maybe she’s needs to a bit more specific in future.
Homosapiens
Could have been Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis, any of those hairy lads, which would have been a reasonable question – you could be totally wasting valuable contact hours teaching that lot about the sacraments. Who knows if they even have souls, never mind whether Guineys has Communion dresses in their size.
Perhaps the position was for teaching English. The nun was simply concerned about homophones I’m sure.
Just because a person has less experience, doesn’t mean they are less capable. Unless other people in the room heard the nun ask what she allegedly asked about the ‘homos’, we only have someone’s word who could, and did benefit financially from this accusation.
I find people crying that they were discriminated against because of age, or this or that, immature or vain and incapable of accepting that someone else is better than them or they just were not the right person for the job. Sometimes the FACT is, that they were simply not a good fit. It’s a very subjective thing, having more experience doesn’t by default make a person better. It just means the person worked at something a certain way longer, perhaps not even particularly efficiently. Perhaps the school needed new blood, things to be done a different way. Perhaps the other person was an easier person to work with, had more energy and better health, was much more efficient????
We all go for job interviews in which we consider ourselves the very best person for the job, but the panel or HR may not agree, experience or no. The award is, in my opinion, very harsh. We all have to take it on the chin if we don’t get a job we want and we’d be millionaires if we got 50 or 60k everytime we THOUGHT we should have gotten this job or that promotion but someone else beat us to it..
Well said Cathy.
A years wages because someone says a non pc word.
Everyone have to abstain from talking if this cr@p goes on.
We are not talking about the everyday realities of job-seeking here, but about clear and proven discrimination at interview, which the court was right to censure. One of the reasons experienced candidates can be seen as so dangerous by interview panels of the wit and calibre detailed here is that they’ve been battling on long enough to know the difference between a fair interview and a skewed interview. If they are to be denied a role in the classroom as contributors, why should they not do so as challengers? Any education system worth its salt should be able to face up to that. I applaud the teacher who brought the case, and hope there will be more like her in the time to come.
What did you base your conclusion that this was a harsh judgement on, Cathy? Did you read the IT article on the case, showing how interview notes were co-incidentally destroyed by two of board members when the equality complaint was submitted? Did you read the full tribunal case report from the Equality Tribunal, produced by an equality officer who deals with these cases all day every day, and is well aware of the points you make about recruitment?
@cathyhuntyrrell please read the original decision which is linked and see so you still think the same.
@E if you read the original decision you will see that the reason the complainant was awarded so much is not because of the discriminatory comment but because the person who became principal has less qualifications AND experience than her.
70% of Employment cases are settled in favour of the employee.
Do you have a source for this, Jim?
What about the homos
Yes trickytrixster, it appears this question remains unanswered.
Obviously they’re in the process of taking over the country. The next step will be to force everyone to be gay and to have gay men and gay women getting together to have gay babies.
#gayagenda
I for one welcome our new gay overlords. #gayagenda
What about the hummus?
Is anyone surprised. Come on a nun has an attitude to Gay people. Shock horror. Of course she is prejudiced.
I didn’t expect it to be that overt, though.
She should not be in a position to influence the development of children with her bs. If she wants to wear funny clothes and wax lyrical about “the homos”, let her do it in the convent, in the company of a thankfully ever-decreasing population of like-minded simpletons.
When are they going to rename the journal the gaynews.is?
Spot on Archer.
I now know why the company that owns the journal is called “Distilled” Media.
Are they moving to Iceland then?
Who’s account is this €54K compensation money coming from? Is it the church? Or is it Public money intended to pay for running the schools?
Religious orders must be removed from state education involvement without further delay. The religious have their own agenda, obviously, and it is incompatible with secular values and norms. This isn’t an isolated example of religious bigotry. The bigotry is rife in all faith schools.
I think it is pretty safe to say it won’t be the Church anyway.
Taxpayer O’Muggins probably.
It comes from the voluntary contributions’
Well Islamic faith schools are funded by wealthy donors in Saudi Arabia.
So is she still working there as a teacher ?
@joanmurphy the decision is linked at the bottom of the article. Yes she is and the less qualified person is her principal.
That would be an ecumenical matter…
Why are people so brainwashed still so actively involved in our childrens education. Also what about the mother and baby homes, what about harboring pedophiles?
Lol
why have an interview at all if they are just supposed to give the job to the most experienced person on paper?!?
Always good for a laugh those auld nuns..
Become a Nun, throw away a perfectly good life, travel backwards 5000 years, live in misery, deny/smother your own sexuality until it distorts, dress like a bat and then spread your misery everywhere you go…..
Its tragic really and they certainly should not be allowed around children or vulnerable adults.
Seems like a fairly good catalyst to review the clause in the employment equality act.
Love to know what answer she gave.
Trainee teachers today have to abide by rule 68 which states that the teaching of jebus snd his flying donkey is more important than any other rule. Trainee teachers actually have to write about this or else they fail.
I’m a qualified primary teacher, though I don’t teach in Ireland. When you’re in teacher training in Ireland, you have the option to take the religious certificate too. It is entirely optional. However, if you don’t have it, that’s 98% of the country’s schools written off the list of potential employers, so effectively everyone takes it. If you do opt to take the test though, you have to spout it all out as if it’s the undeniable and fully backed-up truth. I had to spout out three A4 pages or so in my final exams on how Confession is necessaryto build a relationship with God, or something like that. Cannot remember exactly. I just remember being very proud of my skills in BS.
Confession is still a sacrament that many people use in deepening their relationship with God and as such is very sacred.You may not believe in it as is your right but you could show some respect and refrain from referring to it with disparaging remarks…..you say more that is unflattering about yourself than the church you are so disdainful of.
Shows the need to scrap Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act (the ethos optout).
I think that it provides evidence that there is still antipathy towards LGBT teachers from patrons. But it also shows that despite section 37 it is still possible for the state to slap patrons on the wrist for discrimination.
I don’t think it needs to be scrapped entirely, just redefined so that homophobia or bigotry doesn’t count as an ethos.
The nuns are still at it, the lying biddies.
Why did she get 54 grand and the security guard only 6?? There’s some discrimination right there too!
@amy wallis both equality officers gave half of the maximum award permitted under the employment equality acts. On relation to the security guard he claimed under access to employment where the maximum award is only 13000 while the teacher got half of the maximum ( 2 years salary) under conditions of employment. Ir may not seem fair but thems the rules.
My dad wants to know who pays the award? Will it be garnished from his mass offerings?
If only it were! Unfortunately the tax payers will so the church will get off yet again. The schools are the churches as long as it doesn’t cost them – then they become the States! Convenient eh!
It comes from the voluntary contributions!
In the parish i live in” voluntary” contributions are given in numbered envelopes. And if you fall behind the priest is not shy about pointing it out when you go looking for someone to bury your dead!
She was given compensation for a years salary?
Don’t tell me she was so offended that she became depressed and suicidal. This just stinks of someone making a complaint because they didn’t get the a job. Is she gay, non Catholic or atheist that she felt so offended, or just one of those that goes around feeling offended for everyone else. Was she fired or unable to gain employment as a result?
I agree they school was wrong in the way it was conducted, but the outcome was ridiculous. Plus the damages awarded aren’t from the coffer of the school. Such a precious person.
@hsianloon if you read the full decision you will the reason she got most of the compensation wasn’t because of the discriminatory remark but because the person who became Principal had NO school management experience and was less qualified. She was much younger than the complainant.
Sorry Typo
Everyone will
Just another example as to why religious institutions should have no involvement in education whatsoever.
Why is the school not being named? I would like to know if my children were attending this school!
@Patrick Brennan if a complainat requests anonymity in a sensitve case the Equality Tribunal normally give it. If you read the full decision you will see it is a two-teacher school. Obviously if they named the school, the teacher that took the case would be identified.
Sr. Úfasach and the bould Dermot Clifford in cahoots!!!!! Not surprised at all
Trust them to be stupid or is that just the mold they never grew out off, everyone is made in a mold???
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