A Donegal Specsavers has been ordered to pay €12,000 in compensation to a Muslim woman who was sacked the day after the Manchester terror attack last year.
At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Adjudication Officer, Emer O’Shea has found that Letterkenny Specsavers Ltd discriminated against Amina Ferrah on the grounds of religion when sacking the Optical Assistant on May 23, 2017.
In her findings, Ms O’Shea said that she was satisfied on the basis of the evidence presented that Ms Ferrah’s dismissal in advance of the standard three-month review constituted less favourable treatment on the grounds of religion and that Ms Ferrah’s non-Muslim colleagues were not the subject to such treatment.
The night before Ms Ferrah was sacked, 22-year-old Islamic terrorist, Salman Ramadan Abedi murdered 22 concertgoers in a suicide bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.
In her case at the WRC, Ms Ferrah claimed that she was sacked on discriminatory grounds “as a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that she was clearly identifiable as a Muslim” – a contention strongly disputed by her former employer.
Ms Ferrah always wore her headscarf to work and her uniform and name badge had been ordered for her by her employer the day before the Manchester attack.
She submitted to the WRC that her employer “may have been overly concerned about public sentiment following the attack and the impact it might have on their business”.
Ms Ferrah commenced work at the outlet on April 3, 2017, having previously worked for a Specsavers in the UK for two years.
Taking all of the matters into account, Ms O’Shea found that Ms Ferrah has established a prima facie case of discrimination on the grounds of religion and found that the employer has failed to rebut it.
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Source: Breaking News