IRELAND'S national broadcasting service RTE has been ordered to pay compensation to a former employee for discriminating against them due to their age.
The Workplace Relations Commission has ordered RTE to pay €50,000 to former employee Valerie Cox because the broadcaster discriminated against her on age grounds.
Ms Cox had two separate contracts of employment with RTE, with two separate terms and conditions.
The first began in August 2004, when Ms Cox worked as a radio reporter on programmes including Today with Sean O’Rourke.
That contract was terminated in 2016 when she reached the age of 65.
The second contract, which began in August 2003, was a casual or irregular contract for which she was paid a daily rate.
The evidence showed that she would be rostered for one week every six weeks but that “there was nothing definite”.
RTÉ argued that the retirement age for the complainant was clearly set out in their terms of employment in the associated handbook, and that Ms Cox had taken part in a pre-retirement course in October 2015.
The Adjudication Officer said it seemed clear that the staff handbook does provide for working beyond 65 years, "at least in relation to this category of employee".
She also noted that the staff manual provided for "working after normal retirement age" and did provide for a once-only fixed-term contract to be given to an employee after the age of 65, with the duration of any such contract unspecified.
She found that RTÉ had not established that its compulsory retirement age was objectively justified, and ruled that Ms Cox had been discriminated against on the basis of her age in relation to the termination of her casual/irregular contract of employment.
Speaking to her former colleague Sean O’Rourke today, Ms Cox said she had loved working for RTÉ, which had been a good employer but had taken the case because she was concerned about ageism in Ireland.
She felt it was unjust that she should have to retire at 65 and the WRC had vindicated that view.
She outlined what happened in the months following her 65th birthday: "I had a contract to do what It Says in the Papers. This contract was still live, there was no reference in it to retiring at any specific age.
"I assumed I would be continuing that after I retired from the main job, which did have the statutory 65.
“I kept contacting the organisation after I left, I was actually on the roster for the month after I left. That was taken off and I was told I have to wait for a while, there has to be a little break between you leaving the main job and coming back again for the freelance,” she said.
It is not known yet if RTE will appeal the ruling.
