Donegal sales rep who felt he was being replaced by younger colleague awarded €106k

Seán McCárthaigh

A sales representative with a supplier of hair and beauty products in Donegal, who claimed he was being pushed out of his job to be replaced with a younger salesman, has been awarded €106,000 in compensation.

The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that Jules Hair and Beauty Supplies, which is based in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, had discriminated against sales rep, Damien O’Doherty, on grounds of both age and disability, contrary to the Employment Equality Act 1998.

The award represented the equivalent of two years’ salary.

O’Doherty, who had worked for over 22 years with the company, claimed he was discriminated against on the grounds of his disability and age over being placed on a different pay rate to a younger colleague.

The WRC was provided with medical evidence that he suffered a serious deterioration in his mental health due to work-related stress.

O’Doherty also complained that he was victimised by the failure of his employer to pay him compensation of €6,561 awarded by the WRC in January 2024 in an earlier separate case about unpaid wages.

He claimed he was penalised by his employer for taking another case against the company before the WRC, as it had not provided any alternative reasonable explanation for such a flagrant breach of a WRC ruling.

The WRC heard that the company reached a settlement agreement with the younger sales rep after both men had lodged a pay claim with the WRC but prior to an actual hearing of the case.

O’Doherty said he was met with hostility and suspended immediately when he asked if the company was also going to attempt to resolve his pay claim.

The WRC heard of an incident in August 2023 when he was verbally abused and called derogatory terms, including “a toss pot” and references to his mental health, a week after O’Doherty had informed his employer about his disability when he had questioned why his colleague had been granted more favourable conditions on sales commission.

O’Doherty said he had told his employer about his mental health issues in the hope that he would no longer be treated less favourably

He recalled how he tried to point out that his colleague’s sales figures were higher because he covered a large sales area which included Donegal and Derry.

He told the WRC that he felt extremely vulnerable at the meeting because he was being treated less favourably than a younger salesman who had far less experience and years of service.

Lawyers for Jules Hair and Beauty Supplies claimed the disparity in earnings was the result of a difference in performance between the two sales reps which O’Doherty was attempting to blame on a disability caused by his employer for which he was seeking “punitive redress.”

WRC adjudication officer, Shay Henry, said the company had not provided any evidence to refute O’Doherty’s claims.

Henry said the other sales rep was treated differently as he had got an agreement on his pay in advance of a WRC hearing.

However, he said the company had never provided any justification for a different system of pay between the two men.

The WRC official said this combined with various comments made about O’Doherty taking it easy and asking how long he was going to continue working represented prima facie evidence of age discrimination and he awarded him 52 weeks’ pay.

Henry ruled that remarks made by the employer concerning his mental health was also evidence of discrimination on grounds of disability.

He also awarded O’Doherty another year’s pay as it was clear that the decision not to pay the earlier WRC award and to protract the issue could have a further detrimental impact on him due to his disability.