Equality Officer’s Decision No: DEC-E/2015/024
PARTIES
Muhammad Ahsan
-v-
Resource Services Group Ltd.
(Represented by Management Support Services (Ireland) Ltd.)
File No: EE/2012/612
Date of issue: 25 May, 2015
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 The Complainant (Mr. Muhammad Ahsan) referred a complaint under the Employment Equality Acts to the Equality Tribunal on 3 December 2012 alleging that the Respondent had discriminated against him on grounds of race in terms of section 6(2) of the Employment Equality Acts and contrary to section 8 of those Acts in respect of his conditions of employment. The Complainant also alleged that he performed like work (in terms of section 7 of the Employment Equality Acts) with unnamed Irish comparators and that he was, therefore, entitled to the same rate of remuneration paid by the Respondent to those unnamed comparators (pursuant to section 29 of the Acts).
In accordance with his powers under the Employment Equality Acts, the Director delegated the complaint to the undersigned - Gary Dixon, Equality Officer - for investigation, hearing and decision, and for the exercise of any other relevant functions of the Director under Part VII of the Acts. My investigation of the complaint commenced on 2 February 2015, the date the complaint was delegated to me.
In accordance with the general practice of the Equality Tribunal, the parties were notified on 19 February 2013 that a Hearing of the complaint would take place at Davitt House, 65a Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 on 14 April 2015 commencing at 10.30 am. Notification in writing was sent by registered post to the address provided by the Complainant. However, that notification was returned to the Tribunal on 3 March 2015 with the notation “not collected”. The notification was re-issued by standard post on 3 March and by email on 31 March 2015. No response was received to any of the correspondence sent to the Complainant, nor was the Tribunal advised of any change of postal or email addresses. The notification which issued via email, however, was “successfully relayed” to the email address provided by the Complainant.
1.4 The Complainant did not attend the Hearing scheduled for 14 April 2015. The Respondent, represented by Management Support Services (Ireland) Limited, was in attendance.
2. DECISION OF THE EQUALITY OFFICER.
2.1 In accordance with section 79(6) of the Employment Equality Acts, I make the following decision:
2.2 Section 79(1) of the Acts requires me, as part of my investigation, to hold a Hearing. I am satisfied that the complainant was on notice of the Hearing arrangements and failed to attend without explanation. Accordingly, I find that the Complainant's failure to attend the Hearing is unreasonable and that any obligation I have under section 79(1) of the Acts has ceased. As no evidence was presented at the Hearing in support of the allegations of unlawful treatment contrary to the terms of the Acts, I hereby conclude my investigation and find against the Complainant.
_____________________________________
Gary Dixon
Equality Officer
25th May 2015