Kerry haulage firm fined €30k for gender discrimination against female driver

Seán McCárthaigh

A Kerry haulage firm has been ordered to pay €30,000 compensation to a female truck driver who it discriminated against on grounds of gender over how it applied reduced working hours to staff.

The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that Brennan’s Licensed Hauliers Kilflynn Limited based in Tralee, Co Kerry, breached the Employment Equality Act 1998 over the manner in which it laid off Sinead Allen in November and December 2023.

The WRC concluded Ms Allen was treated less favourably than a male colleague who had a separate undisclosed arrangement with the company regarding his hours.

WRC adjudication officer, Úna Glazier-Farmer, praised the courage of Ms Allen in making the complaint given she operated in “a male-dominated profession” and said the award of €30,000 compensation should serve “as a deterrent to discrimination.”

She also noted that Ms Allen had challenged the company’s fabrication of a story that she was unwelcome at a client’s yard.

Ms Glazier-Smith said she did not accept that the other driver was more senior than Ms Allen as there was no evidence he was in continuous employment.

She said the company’s director, Robert Brennan, was evasive in responses to the WRC and failed to produce ing documentation.

The WRC also ruled that the company had unfairly dismissed Ms Allen from her job and awarded her an additional €3,188 in compensation.

Ms Allen, who was paid a daily rate of €120, claimed her hours began to be reduced from late November 2023 without notice while another driver, Jonathan Brosnan, continued working.

She pointed out that two other male drivers worked “the odd day” around Christmas 2023 while she was “left at home.”

Ms Allen, who had worked with the company since March 2022, gave evidence that she saw the company’s trucks on the road working, despite being told there was a downturn in business.

She denied any knowledge that the haulage firm operated a system of “last in, first out” for redundancies.

The company denied that it had unfairly dismissed the complainant and claimed she had ceased working on a voluntary basis in January 2024.

Mr Brennan also denied that it had discriminated against Ms Allen and claimed the allocation of work among drivers was not influenced by gender.

He told the WRC that the business was dependent on weather conditions for its work for Kerry County Council, McSweeney Brothers and Ardfert Quarries.

He claimed 2023 was very quiet due to a “downturn in construction.”

Mr Brennan explained that he had five drivers including himself with the roster “drawn from seniority.”

He claimed Ms Allen did not want to work intermittent days as it would affect her social welfare payments, while he and Mr Brosnan had their “own agreement” about his hours.

In her ruling, Ms Glazier-Farmer noted that Mr Brennan had given evidence that the “last in, first out” rule applied to offers of work when the business was quiet.

Asked if he had considered sharing work equally between drivers during quieter periods, Mr Brennan said Mr Brosnan “wouldn’t agree to that” before adding that dealing with drivers was “like walking on eggshells.”

Ms Glazier-Farmer financial records provided by Brennan’s did not demonstrate that the company had no option but to lay off employees in late 2023.

The WRC said they had instead shown a healthy sales figure of over €71,000 for a three-month period.

Ms Glazier-Farmer said the practice described by Mr Brennan of laying off staff to cover short seasonal gaps in work was “questionable” and ran contrary to employment legislation about transparent and predictable working conditions which took effect in December 2022.

Given the company’s long-standing contracts with at least two businesses, she said it was “unreasonable” to suggest an employee should be routinely expected to rely on social welfare to sustain the business without any consideration of alternative duties, structured annual leave over the Christmas period or time in lieu.

The WRC also concluded that Ms Allen was unfairly dismissed from her job as no disciplinary or fair procedures were followed by the company.

The company was also ordered to pay further compensation of €2,393 to Ms Allen after it accepted that it had failed to provide her with a contract of employment or a statement of her and conditions.