The head of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association has accused the Irish Congress of Trade Unions of exploiting pregnant women and small business owners as part of a "propaganda campaign to get new members".
ISME chief executive Mr Michael Fielding reacted angrily to claims made by ICTU yesterday that small, non-unionised companies are responsible for the majority of pregnancy-related dismissals cases handled by the Equality Authority.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin yesterday, ICTU general secretary Ms Joan Carmichael said that discrimination against pregnant women was on the increase and dismissal due to pregnancy persisted despite being unlawful since 1977.
"The equality authority has seen a significant growth in the number of queries and cases progressing on to the labour court from pregnant women suffering discrimination - mostly working in small unorganised companies."
Mr Fielding said that while he would not in any way condone discrimination against pregnant women, not one of the 170,000 ISME members had contacted him to say they were the subject of a discrimination claim.
"This is ICTU propaganda. It's a marketing campaign targeting the most vulnerable groups - pregnant ladies and small businesses. I'm very angry that people are being used in this way to launch the ICTU campaign to get new members."
The Equality Authority was being used by ICTU in "a wholly cynical way", Mr Fielding claimed, and the authority's chief executive Mr Niall Crowley was "a peg for ICTU to hang its hat on".
Mr Crowley last night said he stood over Ms Carmichael's statements and said he had not been exploited by ICTU. "We have a shared concern for this pernicious form of discrimination and a shared concern that something like this could continue."
Maternity discrimination accounted for 7 per cent of cases currently being handled by the Equality Authority, Mr Crowley said.
"Of the 279 cases brought under the employment equality act, 20 were pregnancy-related." This was only the tip of the iceberg, he said, as such discriminated was widely under-reported by the victims.
"We're dealing with the significant fears of people trying to hold on to their jobs," he said.
Mr Cowley said he could not say how many of the 20 complainants had been working for small businesses, but he maintained that the problem had a "particular prevalence" among small non-unionised companies.
"It's not a scientific statement, but it comes from experiential evidence, from the people suffering discrimination and the people dealing with these cases who tell us that the pattern is visible."
ICTU yesterday launched a new section to its website to inform pregnant women of their rights in the workplace.
