The Labour Court allowed Krystian Matuszczak’s appeal over his dismissal on the ground of race and ordered D.S.G. Packaging Limited to pay him €15,000 compensation. The decision is dated 2 April 2014.
Matuszczak’s original complaint alleged discriminatory treatment, harassment, discriminatory dismissal and unequal pay on racial grounds. The Equality Officer found the complaints not well-founded, but Matuszczak appealed only the race-based discriminatory-dismissal complaint.
He said he was dismissed without explanation or natural justice, while three Irish employees who breached company rules received disciplinary procedures and lesser sanctions. The company accepted that it summarily dismissed him without following proper procedures. It said probationers were treated similarly regardless of nationality, but could not identify another probationer of a different nationality who had been treated that way.
The Court found Matuszczak had established facts from which discrimination could be inferred. It said the company had offered no evidence for its assertion about probationers of other nationalities and had not proved that it complied with the Employment Equality Acts when it dismissed him.