The Irish Heart Foundation has been accused of ageist discrimination by forcing a worker to retire before his 68th birthday when his contract was not renewed, with the worker maintaining he could have kept doing his job up to the age of 80.
The worker's evidence that he was told the charity's management "don't want people wandering around the building in their older years" was strongly refuted by its lawyers.
Seamus Casey, who was a stroke support group co-ordinator working for the charity in the northeast of the country, has accused it of breaching the Employment Equality Act 1998. He has further alleged he was being paid thousands of euro a year less than younger colleagues in the same job.
The charity denied his statutory complaints at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Tuesday.
The tribunal heard Mr Casey transferred into the Irish Heart Foundation in 2016, having previously been a stroke support group co-ordinator with the Volunteer Stroke Scheme. He ran group meetings for stroke survivors in Co Louth and surrounding counties, as well as providing support to stroke survivors by phone and computer.
He said he had never expected the charity to enforce a mandatory retirement clause in his contract and that he was "wrong-footed" when he was told that his permanent contract would be expiring when he turned 65 in March 2020.
He told the tribunal he "would have seen" the clause when he signed the contract "but known in my heart and soul it has to be all wrong".
"It can't be right that they could stop people doing a job they're good at because of age or sex or gender," he said.
"I thought I was with people who were decent, good people, who'd see what was going on and the good I was doing in my job. I was probably a bit naiive," Mr Casey said.
However, he said he was "requested to stay on" by patient support manager Tracy Egan at a meeting early in 2020. When they spoke, he said he told her that he hoped to "stay on until at least 70, or as long as I'm fit to work".
Ms Tracy replied that there was an age limit in place "because they don't want people wandering around the building in their older years", Mr Casey said. Ms Tracy later denied making such a remark in evidence.
Mr Casey’s employment continued on a series of four fixed-term 12-month contracts ran from January 2020 to December 2023, the tribunal was told. The first was offered in advance of his 65th birthday in March 2020, he said. The final contract offered him either six months' employment on 37 hours a week or part-time hours for 12 months, he said.
It was put to him in cross-examination that the first fixed-term contract was proposed "at your request for further service".
"No, that's incorrect… I went into that meeting with Tracy Egan to request, but did not have to because she said: 'Would you think of staying on please?’"
He said it was "a very stressed 'please'" from Ms Egan.
"I had vulture funds up my backside looking for money and I would have signed any contract put in front of me," Mr Casey said of the period he agreed to the first fixed-term contract, referring to a property mortgage.
"I was in no way shape or form in a position to object to anything, or to say boo, in case I didn’t get a contract. I was under the severest pressure to have money coming into this house," he said. "Once it said I was going to get paid next week, it was fine," he added.
He said he ultimately "decided to try and hold out" until he was 70 so that he could claim an extra €35 a week on the state pension for delaying his retirement to that point.
"It was my view in this day and age how could you get rid of someone fit and able?" he said.
However, he said it had been outlined to him by one manager in 2022 that "HR were insisting" he retire. His employment ended on 31 December 2023, the tribunal was told.
"I intend to be around to 95 or 100," Mr Casey told the WRC. "I felt, and I still feel, I was brilliant at what I was doing. I could still have been doing this job ‘til I was 80 years of age, never mind 70," he said.
Mr Casey's former line manager, Ms Egan, said in response to questioning by the company's HR manager that the complainant had never objected to the mandatory retirement age.
Siobhan Browne, the charity’s HR director, put it to her: "Mr Casey has said in his evidence that you stated ‘There is an age limit. They don’t want people staying around the building in old age."
"No, I never said that," Ms Egan said.
Ms Browne said in a legal submission that Mr Casey was on the standard Irish Heart Foundation contract with a "mandatory retirement age of 65". He "never objected to the retirement age; he simply asked to work longer," she said.
Mr Casey also told the tribunal that prior to the expiry of his final contract, he discovered that younger colleagues with the same job title were receiving more than the €32,000-a-year pro-rata salary he had been getting - up to €39,000 in the case of one named comparator.
He said that after raising this, the charity added a sum of €4,000 to his severance pay, as a backdated salary increase equivalent to €34,000 a year for full-time hours over an unspecified period.
The charity's director of corporate services and finance, Helen Redmond, said there were "many factors" including qualifications and "benchmarking against the market" that had given rise to a situation where stroke coordinators were earning salaries on a range between €32,000 and €38,000 a year.
Questioned on one of the comparator employees named by Mr Casey's representative, Jade Wrght of Ormonde Solicitors, Ms Redmond said the employee wasn’t in a stroke co-ordinator role, but in a "social and digital marketing role" which saw her earning €39,000.
"Did [the comparator] eventually resign from that position and return to being a full-time stroke coordinator?" Ms Wright asked her.
"She stepped down, then moved to a stroke co-ordinator role," the witness said.
"And kept her €39,000 per annum?" Ms Wright asked.
"She’s now moved to a manager role," the witness said.
"She stepped down to the same role as the complainant, and kept her €39,000," Ms Wright said.
At that point, adjudicator Úna Glazier-Farmer intervened and asked what "objective justification" there had been for Mr Casey being paid a lesser sum.
Ms Redmond said: "She was already on a salary of €39,000. Before she joined the Irish Heart Foundation she was on €40,000. The role didn't evolve as expected, so she moved to the stroke co-ordinator role."
"I’m not aware of many people who’d take a role with a reduction in salary," the witness continued, adding: "That lady had a lot of experience."
"So did Mr Casey," the adjudicator said. She went on to put it to Ms Redmond that Mr Casey said the differential was down to his age.
"Oh, it’s noting to do with age; that would never come into it. I would strongly say it’s nothing to do with it," Ms Redmond said.
"What was it?" Ms Glazier-Farmer asked.
"I suppose it was the fact he was on a fixed-term contract. It got renewed at the same price as the previous year, and that was the honest answer," the witness said.
In a closing submission, Ms Wright said : "They renewed the contract when it suited them, contrary to the retirement policy. When it didn't - and they thought they could just get rid of him on account of his age - they relied on the policy," counsel said.
Ms Browne told the WRC the charity had followed the statutory code of practice on mandatory retirement and that Mr Casey "at no point" objected to the retirement age.
"We refute that a comment was made that we "didn’t want old people around the building", Ms Browne said.
She said there were "very clear reasons in relation to new hires and recruits" for the differences in pay, citing Labour Court precedent in that regard.
Ms Glazier-Farmer closed the hearing and said she would go and draft her decision, which will be delivered in writing to the parties before being published by the WRC.
