The Labour Court disallowed Frances Donnelly’s appeal against the National Gallery of Ireland, rejecting her complaints of sexual harassment, harassment and victimisation. The Court affirmed the Equality Tribunal’s decision, dated 11 April 2013.
Donnelly said the Gallery’s removal of a lock from the women’s changing-room and its handling of her grievance amounted to harassment. The Gallery said it removed the outer-door lock after a risk assessment identified a substantial safety risk. The Court accepted that the outer door needed to remain unlocked and found that removing its lock was not sexual or gender-based harassment. It also found the grievance meeting did not establish harassment connected to gender.
The Court found insufficient facts to infer that later treatment was a reaction to Donnelly’s 2005 equal-pay complaint. That complaint had been resolved through mediation, which placed her at the maximum point of the Service Attendant pay scale from 1 January 2006. The Court found the later equal-pay complaint was essentially the same claim and that there was no valid equal-pay claim under the Acts. The merits of that complaint were not decided because the Equality Officer had no jurisdiction to investigate it.