Nigeria Abroad
Nigerian who was allegedly called a chimpanzee and subjected to monkey noises by his team leader at work in Ireland has been awarded €30,000 for racial discrimination, an Irish national newspaper has said.
Alan Haugh, the country’s deputy chairman of the Labour court, ordered recruitment firm CPL Solutions Ltd, trading as Flexsource Recruitment, to pay the €30,000 to agency worker Victor Kings Oluebube for racial discrimination under the Employment Equality Act.
At the time of the two racist incidents in question, Mr Kings Oluebube was assigned by Dublin based firm, CPL Solutions Ltd to Kuehne & Nagel as a warehouse operative.
Mr Haugh ordered human resources company, CPL Solutions to pay out the €30,000 after finding that the firm “is vicariously liable for the harassment in question.”
Mr Haugh stated that in regard to the serious nature of the harassment and the effects that it has had on Mr Kings Oluebube, the redress for Mr Kings Oluebube should be dissuasive and proportionate to the injury suffered by him.
The €30,000 award is equivalent to approximately 63 weeks’ gross pay.
Mr Haugh said CPL Solutions took no steps to reverse the effects of the racial harassment experienced by Mr Oluebube. The employer was also flayed for “very unsophisticated bullying and harassment policy” and to “the ad hoc approach” adopted by a Flexsource staff member to the investigation of the Mr Kings Oluebube’s allegations.
The decision by the Labour Court reverses an earlier ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), which dismissed Mr Oluebube’s claim for racial discrimination.
The WRC Adjudicator in June 2020 found that the CPL Solutions was able avail of a defence under the Employment Equality Acts by showing that it took steps to reverse the effects of the harassment and to prevent a recurrence.
Read the full story in Nigeria Abroad
