The Labour Court allowed Thomas Ratkevicius’s appeal on victimisation and directed his former employer, Martin McNally, to pay him €5,000 compensation. The determination was signed on 16 September 2010.
An Equality Officer had found against Ratkevicius on all aspects of his complaint. At the appeal, he pursued only victimisation, concerning a text message he said McNally sent after he initiated discrimination proceedings.
McNally did not attend the hearing. The Court accepted Ratkevicius’s account that the message threatened to report him to the Gardaí for alleged drug dealing, and found it was sent after McNally had been notified of the proceedings.
The Court found the threat was adverse treatment made in reaction to Ratkevicius’s discrimination complaint, and therefore constituted victimisation. It set compensation at €5,000, none of it for pecuniary loss, and varied the Equality Officer’s decision.