The Irish Heart Foundation has been ordered to pay salary arrears and €15,000 in compensation to a 70-year-old worker who was discriminated against by being paid less than younger colleagues with the same job title.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found the charity had breached the Employment Equality Act 1998.
Seamus Casey (70), who was a stroke support group co-ordinator, had accused the charity of ageist discrimination by forcing him to retire on 31 December 2023, as he was approaching his 69th birthday.
He further alleged discrimination in respect of pay and terms of conditions of employment on the grounds of age – all of which was denied by the charity.
"I intend to be around to 95 or 100," Mr Casey said at a hearing last year. "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.
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.
"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 naive," Mr Casey said.
However, Mr Casey’s employment continued past his retirement age on foot of four fixed-term 12-month contracts that ran from January 2020 to December 2023, the tribunal was told.
Siobhan Browne, the charity’s HR director, said in a legal submission that at the time Mr Casey’s role was terminated, he was his contract set out a "mandatory retirement age of 65". He "never objected to the retirement age; he simply asked to work longer," she said.
"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.
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 co-ordinators were earning salaries on a range between €32,000 and €38,000 a year.
Jade Wright of Ormonde Solicitors, for Mr Casey, questioned Ms Redmond about a comparator identified by her client earning €39,000. Ms Redmond said that worker was not a stroke co-ordinator and was rather worker in "social and digital marketing".
Adjudicator Úna Glazier-Farmer put it to Ms Redmond that Mr Casey said the differential was down to his age.
"Oh, it’s nothing 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 her decision, Ms Glazier-Farmer found that Mr Casey knew he was "being offered a final fixed-term contract and signed it", rejecting his claim of discriminatory dismissal on the grounds of age.
However, the adjudicator wrote that there was "no evidence of objective justification… as to why the complainant was treated less favourably in being paid a lower hourly rate for like work".
She concluded Mr Casey was discriminated against under the equal pay provisions of the equality legislation.
Taking into account a sum of €4.453.60 already given to Mr Casey by the Irish Heart Foundation as "back pay" upon his termination, Ms Glazier-Farmer concluded he was still due "arrears of remuneration" in the amount of €1,363.12.
She ordered the Irish Heart Foundation to pay Mr Casey this sum, along with a further €15,000 in compensation for the effects of the ageist discrimination.
Reporting by Stephen Bourke
