The Labour Court rejected William McCamley’s appeal against the Equality Tribunal’s decision on his harassment and victimisation claims against Dublin Bus, leaving the decision in the company’s favour unchanged. The Court signed its determination on 18 February 2016.
The Court found that abusive Facebook comments by a Dublin Bus employee amounted to harassment of McCamley in the course of his work as a union representative. But it accepted Dublin Bus’s statutory defence: the company’s Rule 18 prohibited harmful conduct between employees, and it had disciplined the author of the comments.
The Court found the 2008 assault complaint was brought outside the time limit and was not well founded; the merits were not decided. The graffiti incident, which occurred after McCamley’s original complaint, was not properly before the Equality Tribunal or the Court. On victimisation, the Court found no evidence that any difference in handling compared with two managers was based on religion or nationality.