A primary school in Cavan was ordered to pay €20,000 in damages to one of its teachers after it disciplined her for requesting for parental leave while applying for the post of deputy headmaster.
In this case, Labour Relations Commission (WRC) judge Shay Henry ordered the Board of Management of Farnham National School to pay school teacher Paulette Leonard €20,000 for penalising her contrary to the Parental Leave Act.
Ms. Leonard argued that as a result of her discussions with the chairman of the board and director Geraldine Dolan regarding parental leave, the interview for the deputy director was biased against her.
This was denied by the school, but after the inquiry, Mr. Henry concluded that the only conclusion he could draw from raising the facts of Ms. Leonard’s application for parental leave at the pre-hearing committee meeting was that it was deemed relevant to her application. The position of vice principal, not positively.
Ms Leonard has worked as a primary school teacher in Farnham NS since 1996 and applied to Farnham NS for six periods of leave in early 2020.
In July, the school granted Ms Leonard conditional parental leave on six different dates during the 2020/21 school year, but the INTO alleged that the BoM’s position on the attached conditions violated Ms Leonard’s rights, reports Breaking News.
On December 3, 2020, Ms. Leonard applied for a job for the vacant position of deputy director.
Ms. Leonard was interviewed for the position of Deputy Director on December 15, 2020 by a panel consisting of the Director, Chairman of the Management Board and an independent assessor.
In the interview, INTO stated that some of the questions were directed to Ms. Leonard regarding her request for parental leave due to this subconscious bias as a form of punishment and ultimately in favor of the positive parental leave applicant who did not apply for parental leave parental. school year or before this interview.
The school said Ms. Leonard was unsuccessful not cause as applied for parental leave; She just didn’t do as well as the other candidate in the interview.
They said an examination of her claim form showed no causation.
The school said it was pure speculation on Ms Leonard’s part.
They said if Ms Leonard had had real concerns about the composition of the hearing panel, she would have objected from the start – she didn’t, reports Breaking News.
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