Pdforra worker forced to retire wins job back
THE former office manager of the military representative association, Pdforra, has won her claim that she was forced to retire from her job because of age discrimination.
Susan Devereux had been working with Pdforra since it was established 25 years ago. But she had to retire when she reached her 60th birthday last March.
She brought a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in September where she argued that she had been victimised and felt distressed and upset.
The WRC has now determined Ms Devereux had established a prima facie case of discrimination and Pdforra had failed to objectively justify its reasons for dismissing her when she reached 60. But the adjudication officer was not satisfied that Ms Devereux had been victimised.
The level of compensation that can be awarded by the WRC is restricted by legislation and the adjudicator found this meant she could not adequately compensate Ms Devereux.
In those circumstances, she ruled that Ms Devereux should be re-instated in her job and that was the “appropriate remedy”.
Pdforra did not comment last night on the finding. The decision is expected to be discussed by the association’s national executive.
Ms Devereux submitted that she learned in August 2016 that she was expected to retire on her 60th birthday, although she had been told by a senior Pdforra official that she was “going nowhere” as they could not afford to lose her on top of two other departures on retirement.
She told the association she did not wish to leave and asked that her contract be extended beyond March.
But in January she was offered limited further employment after her birthday, for a 40-day transition period.
She accepted that in her contract of employment, it was stated that the normal retirement age for employees of Pdforra was 60. She was aware that members in the Defence Forces could not work beyond 60 but as she was a civilian this rule did not apply to her.
The WRC adjudication officer found that civilian employees were not governed by the Defence Acts and the rules applying to soldiers could not be related to office-based administrative civilian staff.
The officer rejected the Pdforra argument that the other female civilian was allowed to work beyond 60 because Pdforra “never got around to giving her” a contract.
Ms Devereux is married to former deputy general secretary of Pdforra Simon Devereux, who held that post from 2002 to 2014.