A pipe fitter who was verbally and racially abused while working for an Irish engineering company because he was English has been awarded €20,000 in compensation by an Equality Tribunal.
The man said he was called names by his colleagues because of his background and became the butt of racist jokes and taunting almost immediately after starting work on a Dublin construction site in April 2006.
The man, who requested not to be named, said shortly after joining the firm the abuse was so bad he began eating lunch in his car instead of the canteen when co-workers began reading aloud negative newspaper reports about the performance of the English football team in the 2006 World Cup and the Sellafield nuclear plant in his presence.
He told the Tribunal his colleagues would say "send the Brit in" to clear the way if they had to enter any potentially dangerous areas in their work.
Two months after starting work the man was made redundant and he said he was sacked instead of a less experienced Irish worker because he was British, even though he had received indications that the job would last for 12 months at least.
When the subject of redundancy arose he said one colleague said "the Brit should be sacked and an Irish man should not be let go" and that another worker told his supervisor; "No Irishman is going out of the gate while we employ a Brit".
The engineering company rejected the claim and said the man never reported any abuse to his site manager.
They said the man was selected for redundancy because he had less service than other workers on the site, and that the last-in-first-out principle was followed in the decision and stated that at no time did it give a guarantee of 12 months' work to the man.
The board of the Equality Tribunal found the man was racially harassed and that some of the acts were of a blatant and intimidatory nature. But it ruled the company did not choose the man for redundancy because of his nationality. The company was ordered to pay the man €20,000 in compensation.
