The Labour Court found no sex discrimination in Bailey Gibson Limited’s recruitment requirement for a carton folder/gluer machine operator. In a determination dated 14 August 1997, it allowed the company’s appeal, overturning the Equality Officer’s earlier finding of indirect discrimination and £700 recommendation to Breda Nathan.
Nathan had applied for the operator role but was not a member of the Irish Print Union, whose membership card was required under an industrial relations agreement. The Court found the requirement affected a greater proportion of men than women in the company’s workforce, so it did not bear significantly more heavily on women. It concluded that Nathan had not established a prima facie case of discrimination.