The Workplace Relations Commission ordered Seda College to pay Melissa Angarita Cardenas €20,000 after upholding her victimisation complaint. It also found race discrimination in two complaints, awarding her €10,000 in each. Adjudication Officer Marie Flynn’s decision was dated 2 August 2022.
Angarita Cardenas said she was removed from the Latin American marketing department and replaced by a Venezuelan employee, then left out of work during lockdown while colleagues continued working. The WRC found that the college had not rebutted her race discrimination claims. It also found a causal connection between her WRC discrimination complaint and alleged adverse treatment, upholding victimisation. The college disputed her claims; the officer said its commission spreadsheet was “a complete work of fiction”.
The ten complaints covered three referral periods. Other successful claims concerned unpaid commission, additional hours, changes to employment terms, fixed-term work and penalisation. The WRC rejected claims of age and gender discrimination, victimisation in one complaint and discrimination in employment conditions. It also found no jurisdiction over a later victimisation allegation and part of the fixed-term complaint. In the later equality complaint, victimisation was outside the cognisable period and the conditions claim was not well founded.