A NUN was awarded €8,500 compensation for age discrimination after the Labour Court found a Limerick college regarded her as a "a person from another era who was out of her time". Sister Mary Loye told the court she was "shocked and very upset" when she heard the Mary Immaculate College was not making her permanent.
She felt she and other "older" academics were seen as "yesterday's people" and "over the hill".
Last night a spokesman for the college said management were "quite shocked" by the decision of the Labour Court and that internal structures would be examined as a result.
In 2001, when Sister Mary Loye was 59, she applied for a full-time job having been a religious studies assistant lecturer on successive fixed-term contacts since 1995.
She had an MA in philosophy, was studying for a PhD and also taught biblical studies at postgraduate level. Seven long-term, part-time academics had applied to be made permanent and she was the only one who was unsuccessful.
She had been the oldest applicant by 11 years and was 27 years older than the average age of the others.
As a result of being turned down, Sister Mary told the court she had to attend a doctor for a number of years because of stress and anxiety.
The whole process had a "hugely negative professional and emotional impact" on her. She said other applicants she had spoken to all seemed to have a much less hostile interview experience than she did.
Witnesses for the college denied discrimination, saying the interview process had been open and transparent and Sister Mary had failed to reach the accepted and agreed standard.
After her failed application, she had been re-appointed for a further six years until her retirement, and the college asked why she had been kept on if age was a factor.
In a finding that has just become available, the court said it had been become clear during the hearing of evidence that that the "thrust and ethos" of the interview was to change and modernise the institution.
It was to "appoint to permanency younger and more dynamic people, who would be able to meet the requirements of a younger and more dynamic head of department".
The court said Sister Mary was a long-serving member of a religious order, schooled in a different ethos, and guided strongly by the virtue of obedience, both to those above and below.
"It is the view of the court that, unfortunately, her employers regarded her as a person from another era who was 'out of her time' and would not fit into the idea of a modern 21st Century institution which the college wished to establish."
Sister Mary was awarded €3,500 because she was unable to get salary increments and in theory lost the chance to compete for full lecturer status. She got a further award of €5,000 for the effects of the discrimination.
Last night, John Coady, vice-president for administration and finance at the college, said the case had been as a result of an appeal after an Equality Officer had found in favour of the educational institution.
"It is a disappointment from our point of view that it worked that way, but obviously if the Labour Court felt we discriminated . . . we don't intend to appeal it or take it any further; but we would certainly be reviewing our processes in the light of the decision," he said.
"If a decision goes against you, you have to look at what you are doing and see if you can do anything differently. This is the first case of this kind which has ever gone against the college. We take the whole thing very seriously."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce