ADJ-00034783

Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Complainant

A Minister

Representatives

Chief State Solicitor’s Office

Act

Complaint Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 77 of the Employment Equality Act 1998.

CA-00043197-001

13/03/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 21 Equal Status Act 2000.

CA-00043269-001

26/03/2021

The complainant alleges that the respondent failed to consider and acknowledge correspondence she sent to him.

The complainant sent the respondent a submission regarding proposed legislative changes to the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) Amendment Bill 2019. The submission was based on a health and safety risk to public patients. The respondent did not acknowledge or consider the submission and correspondence relating to the submission. The complainant states that she is not an employee of the respondent.

By written submission dated 11 November 2021 representative for the respondent submitted as follows:

CA-00043197-001 The complaint under the Employment Equality Act is misconceived as the Act deals with discrimination in the workplace and the complaint should be dismissed.

CA-00043269-001 The complainant failed to comply with s 21(2) and has set out no legal basis for her claim of discrimination. This complaint is misconceived and should be dismissed in accordance with s 22 of the Equal Status Act.

I must be satisfied of my jurisdiction to investigate these complaints by reference to the relevant legislation and the nature of the complaints.

The Law

The Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015

The Employment Equality Acts 1998–2015 protects against discrimination in a broad range of employment and employment-related areas. 

Equal Status Acts 2000-2005

The Equal Status Acts 2002-2005 prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services on ten protected grounds, namely, gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, membership of the traveller community and in respect of being in receipt of housing assistance (in the context of the provision of accommodation).  There is an onus on a complainant seeking redress under the Acts to establish that they sought to access a service or obtain goods from the respondent that was available to the public generally, and that in so doing they were discriminated on one or more of the protected grounds.

Dismissal of claims

Section 77(A) of Employment Equality Act 1998-2015

S 77(A) “The Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission may dismiss a claim at any stage if of opinion that it has been made in bad faith or is frivolous, vexatious or misconceived or relates to a trivial matter.

Section 22(1) Equal Status Act 2000 -2005

S 22(1) “The Director of the Workplace Relations Commission may dismiss a claim at any stage if of opinion that it has been made in bad faith or is frivolous, vexatious or misconceived or relates to a trivial matter.”

Section 22 of the Acts allows for the filtering of complaints prior to a hearing or at any stage of proceedings. In Nowak v The Data Protection Commissioner [2016] IESC 18 at page 6, the court stated that “[a]ny public decision maker must have the capacity to screen claims and exclude at an early stage those which are plainly misconceived”.

The meaning and scope of the word ‘misconceived’ was considered by the High Court in Keane v The Minister of Justice (1994) 3 IR 347. In this case it was found that a claim is misconceived if it is incorrectly based in law i.e., the claim is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the legislation inter alia.

Findings:

CA-00043197-001 The complainant confirmed she is not an employee of the respondent. This complaint under the Employment Equality Act is misconceived as it is based on a misunderstanding of the legislation.

CA-00043269-001 This complaint has been brought under the Equal Status Act 2000 and relates to the alleged failure of the respondent to acknowledge and consider a submission on proposed legislative changes to the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) Amendment Bill 2019. I am satisfied that this complaint does not fall within the remit of the Equal Status Acts and that the complaint is based on a misunderstanding of the Acts.

CA-00043197-001 I dismiss the complaint as misconceived in accordance with s 77(A) of the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015.

CA-00043269-001

I dismiss the complaint as misconceived in accordance with s 22 of the Equal Status Acts 2000-2015.

Misconceived.