The Labour Court dismissed Goode Concrete Ltd’s appeal and upheld a €20,000 award to Oksana Shaskova after finding that her dismissal was discriminatory on grounds of race. The determination was dated 7 October 2009.
Goode Concrete said it dismissed Shaskova because it planned to outsource payroll. The Court found there was no redundancy situation and no firm plan to outsource the work. Shaskova was the only non-Irish administrative worker, and Irish colleagues, including those with less service, were not considered for dismissal.
The Court also found no objective basis for the company’s suspicion that Shaskova might pass confidential information to other workers, and linked that suspicion to her nationality and interpreter role. The company failed to show that her dismissal was unrelated to her nationality. Separate gender discrimination and gender and race harassment complaints were not upheld at first instance and were not pursued on appeal.