WRC rejects Bernadette Collins’s race discrimination complaint against Buggy Curtain Making Limited

The Workplace Relations Commission found a race discrimination complaint by Bernadette Collins against Buggy Curtain Making Limited was not well founded. The decision was dated 4 October 2023. Collins, a seamstress who had worked for the company for more than 20 years, said she was treated less favourably because she was Irish. The company denied the claim. She described differences in how grievances and work arrangements were handled; the adjudication officer accepted that she had sometimes been treated differently, but found insufficient evidence that this was because she was Irish. To establish discrimination, Collins had to present facts from which it could be inferred that the different treatment was linked to her race. The officer found she had not established that threshold, so the complaint failed.