WRC rules on five complaints in farmer’s dispute with Leinster Co Op Marts

The Workplace Relations Commission found Seamus Hayes’s Equal Status Act complaint against Leinster Co Op Marts not well founded and said it lacked jurisdiction over four other complaints. The decision was dated 4 July 2023. The complaints arose from a dispute over the mart’s shareholder register, board elections and sheep sales. The WRC said there was no employment relationship, a requirement for the Employment Equality Act complaint, and found it lacked jurisdiction over complaints under that Act, the Charities Act, the Consumer Protection Act and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act. The Equal Status complaint failed on its merits because no discrimination under the Act took place.