The Defence Forces have been ordered to pay a former female Air Corps Captain almost €118,000, plus seven years' interest, in compensation for discrimination on grounds related to pregnancy and maternity.
The award to Yvonne O'Rourke by the Workplace Relations Commission following a seven-year battle was the maximum award that could be made after her prolonged absence on pregnancy-related grounds was treated as equivalent to sick leave by a male officer.
Based on that extensive "sick leave" record, she was given poor performance ratings, which impacted her prospects of promotion, by preventing her from participating in an obligatory training course required for career advancement.
Ms. O'Rourke had joined the Air Corps in 1991 and at the time of the incidents complained of, was serving as a supplies and refueling officer at Baldonnel Aerodrome.
When she challenged poor ratings in 2010 and 2011, an investigation partially upheld her complaint, and her weak ratings were replaced with "good".
Eventually the General Officer Commanding of the Air Corps approved Ms. O'Rourke's attendance at the training course, but by that stage, her health had deteriorated, and she was subsequently retired from the Defence Forces on grounds of ill health.
However, while the retirement was approved on 6 July 2015, and her salary stopped in October 2015, it was not finalised until 26 July 2016, leaving her in a difficult financial situation as the main breadwinner in her family with neither a salary nor a pension.
Ms. O'Rourke was supported in her case by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which funded legal representation.
Following a six-day hearing, WRC Adjudication Officer Stephen Bonnlander found that Ms. O'Rourke had been a victim of an "unacceptable systems failure" in the Defence Forces resulting in gender discrimination in terms of access to promotion.
He justified making the maximum award equivalent to two years' salary, saying the discrimination spanned two absences on Ms O'Rourke's maternity leave and its detrimental effect on her overall health.
He also ordered the Defence Forces to pay interest from 13 May 2013 when her complaint was launched as compensation for the huge delay in investigating and hearing the matter.
However, he dismissed further discrimination and victimisation complaints by Ms. O'Rourke.
Mr. Bonnlander's ruling is highly critical of the Defence Forces' awareness of equality law, stating: "It beggars belief that women should have been serving in the Irish Defence Forces for decades, without the Forces' systems and instruction ever having been appropriately updated to ensure they reflect anti-discrimination law as it applies to pregnancy and maternity."
He cites a 2006 Defence Forces staff handbook entitled "Interpersonal Relationships in the Defence Forces, describing it as remarkable for two details.
"The provisions on sexual harassment run to a full one-and-a-half pages, three times the length of what it has to say on discrimination, and pregnancy-related discrimination is not mentioned at all.
"It seems that, even though women have been serving in the Defence Forces since 1979, the possibility of sexual misconduct exercised senior commanders' minds much more than the notion that women could be disadvantaged or discriminated against because of pregnancy."
He goes on: "The nine grounds for discrimination are not even clearly identified. And not even a passing mention is made of the established anti-discrimination law in respect of pregnant service members, even though women started serving in the Irish Defence Forces 27 years earlier."
Mr. Bonnlander also criticises the Defence Forces for their late withdrawal of certain objections which resulted in an enormous delay, and "considerable detriment to the complainant."
He ordered that the Defence Forces should take steps to improve procedures and awareness of such issues in future, and to "minimise disadvantage to the officers concerned".
Those steps include a review to be completed by 31 December 2021, and a training programme for all Defence Forces personnel with staff responsibilities to be completed by 31 December 2022.
Welcoming the adjudication, Ms. O'Rourke expressed the hope that it would "shine some light on the areas of darkness that needed to be revealed within the Irish Defence Forces".
The Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Sinead Gibney said the Commission now expects the Defence Forces to act within the given timelines to ensure the necessary information and training were put in place to guarantee women in the services were not penalised or discriminated against for having children while serving their country.
