ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Decision Reference: ADJ-00003662

Complaint for Resolution:

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 09/12/2016

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Pat Brady

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 79 of the Employment Equality Act, 1998, following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint.

Complainant’s Submission and Presentation:

The complainant had her annual performance review for 2015 in March 2016.

In the course of the interview she was asked about whether she had any plans to retire.

This was done on the instructions of the interviewer’s manager. She responded that she had no plans to retire. She is aged sixty but has only seventeen years’ service.

She scored very well in the review.

Subsequently, she asked a number of colleagues whether they had been asked a similar question and all said they had not, including some in the same age cohort as the complainant.

She raised the matter with her manager. The Manager replied along the lines outlined below in the respondent’s submission. In follow up correspondence the complainant raised a number of workplace issues not related to the current complaint.

Respondent’s Submission and Presentation:

The respondent submits that the question is part of its workforce planning research and preparations being undertaken under the direction of its HR Department. Managers in certain areas were asked to identify numbers of possible future departures from the service to assist with its forward planning.

The necessity arises because a significant number of retirees, about half of the total in 2015, opt to do so before reaching the retirement age of sixty-five. While it is a large department the total number of those retiring last year represented about 12% of total workforce numbers and therefore the task of planning involves gathering as much information as possible about future retirement and its impact on the service as there continue to be some restrictions on recruitment.

The respondent confirms that the complainant’s management was provided with a list of the employees within the cohort 60-65 (including the complainant) with a request that it ascertain their future intentions. There were some forty employees on the list in the complainant’s workplace.

This was why the question was asked. (The respondent also acknowledged the high rating of the complainant in the assessment).

Findings and Conclusions

I can find no basis to ground a complaint of discrimination in this case.

No action followed the complaint which could give rise to a conclusion that the question had adverse consequences for the complainant. On the contrary she achieved the second highest rating it is possible to achieve in the performance review.

Further the evidence is overwhelming that this was an exercise in prudent workforce planning by the respondent. The evidence of the complainant that others were not asked the question is not only too unreliable but in face of the submissions of the respondent not entirely credible.

It seems possible that not all forty of those due to be asked the question were in fact asked, but the respondent says that it has confirmation that the complainant was not the only one to be asked.

I note that there is a backdrop of other grievances which may have played a part in the complainant’s perception of the reasons for the question being asked. However, I discount that and she has not made out a prima facie case and therefore her complaint fails.

Decision:

Section 79(6) of the Employment Equality Act, 1998 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under section 82 of the Act.

I have carefully considered all the written and oral evidence that was laid before me both before and during the hearing. For the reasons set out above Complaint CA-00005091-001 fails and it is dismissed.

Dated:   16/02/2017