A COUNCIL has paid out £25,000 to a worker who alleged she had suffered sex discrimination.
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council made the payment to Sharon Douglas "without admission of liability" to settle the case, taken with the support of the Equality Commission.
Mrs Douglas was the only woman employed in the Technical Services section of the council's Environmental Services department, based in the Limavady depot as a yard/storeperson.
She resigned in May, alleging she had been discriminated against in the allocation of overtime and training facilities and was subjected to harassment.
"Other employees in the yard - all men - were allowed to put themselves forward for overtime on Saturdays and public holidays, but when I asked to be considered in the same way, I was refused.
"The reasons given made no sense to me. I was told it was because I hadn't been trained on some of the machines but, when I asked for training, that was also refused.
"I complained about my treatment and said I thought it was sex discrimination, but that was responded to with abusive language. At another time, I was asked to go to a different site when inspectors were visiting, to clean the kitchen and the toilets, which was not my job. I was told that the toilets `needed a woman’s touch'."
Mrs Douglas took a grievance which, after a series of meetings, was rejected.
However, during the council's investigation, colleagues were asked if they would be `OK' working alongside her in another amenity site and it was reported that they would not be due to fear of the position a man might be in "if she accuses me of something up in that yard".
"The whole thing affected me badly and I was off work with stress," Mrs Douglas said.
"I was deeply hurt and upset, both by my initial treatment and the way my complaints were dealt with."
Michael Wardlow, Equality Commission chief commissioner said Mrs Douglas, "a woman, in a minority of one... was only asking to be given the same opportunities as the men working alongside her, but the responses she got worsened, rather than helped, her situation".
"Asking her colleagues whether they would be `OK' working alongside her was unlikely to have been asked about a male employee and, of course, saying that cleaning the toilets `needed a woman's touch' was a direct and inappropriate reference to her gender."
He said the council has agreed to meet the Commission and review its policies, practices and procedures to ensure that they comply in all respects with its obligations.
