Two former employees each won €5,000 after an Equality Officer found that a catering company indirectly discriminated against them on grounds of age in its redundancy calculations. The officer also ordered the company to pay uncapped ex-gratia shortfalls of €49,232 to Ms B and €42,158 to Ms D.
In a decision dated 18 July 2017, Equality Officer Valerie Murtagh found that a cap of 1.25 times salary reduced the payments for the two complainants, who had 31 and 27 years of service. A younger colleague with six years’ service received two weeks’ pay per year without the cap.
A catering company said the formula was applied consistently and that the cap supported equitable payments, budgeting and financial stability. Murtagh accepted consistency as a legitimate aim, but found the company had not shown that it considered less discriminatory or more proportionate ways to achieve it. She also cited the complainants’ treatment during the redundancy process.