A salesman from the Traveller community, who quit his job after he said he overheard the managing director of his new job making remarks about “pikeys” and “tinkers”, has secured €7,500 in compensation for discrimination in the workplace.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) made the award to Raymond Nevin after finding that there was a “culture and tolerance” of the use of such “derogatory terminology” towards Travellers at CPF (Profiles) Ltd in Longford.
The tribunal heard Mr Nevin quit in June 2024 after working two-and-a-half weeks in the sales office of the company, which manufactures roofing panels and cladding.
He said that on his second week in the office, he overheard the firm’s managing director speaking on the phone about the presence of gardaí in Longford town, and then hearing him remark: “The pikeys must have been acting up.”
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Two days later, Mr Nevin said, the MD was on the phone again, and remarked: “You will have to go to the tinkers for lead.”
The following week, when there was a Traveller customer on the premises, the MD again made a remark to the effect that he was “making sure the [customer] put the item back that he was looking at”, Mr Nevin said.
Mr Nevin’s short period of employment followed a job interview in late May 2024, when, he said, the MD had questioned him about where he was from and who his father was. He said this had been an attempt to find out if he was a member of the Traveller community or not.
The MD, who was not named in the WRC decision published on Monday, said in his evidence that membership of the Traveller community made “no difference” to him.
He told the WRC he was denying discrimination, but said most of what Mr Nevin had stated was “correct”.
The MD said he could not recall either of the phone calls on June 4th or 6th, 2024. He said he “may” have used the word “pikey” on the 4th and was not denying it. He said he would not have used the word “tinkers” as alleged in relation to the phone call on the 6th, as the customer was a member of the Traveller community.
He said he had “no recollection at all” of the alleged remark on June 12th but said that, if it was said, “it was a joke”.
In her decision, adjudicator Anne McElduff wrote: “I am satisfied there was a culture and tolerance in the respondent’s workplace of the use of derogatory terminology such as ‘pikeys’ or ‘tinkers’ to describe Travellers.”
She noted that Mr Nevin had accepted the remarks were not directed at him, but accepted his position that the use of the language left him feeling “disheartened” and discriminated against.
Upholding Mr Nevin’s complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998, Ms McElduff awarded him €7,500 in compensation, a sum equivalent to nearly 19 weeks’ wages.
