A transgender taxi driver who was dismissed after making inappropriate remarks to staff and relatives of children attending a special needs school has lost a claim that he was discriminated against because of his gender, reports The Mirror.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) determined that a transport company which ended the driver’s contract to transport children and their special needs assistants to the school following complaints had not violated the Employment Equality Act 1998, reports The Mirror.
The names of those involved were withheld due to the sensitive nature of the case and because it concerned a school catering for children with special needs.
The WRC heard that the taxi driver was born male and obtained the taxi contract in 2023 while transitioning from male to female, but that he had stopped transitioning in August 2024, reports The Mirror.
The commission was told that his contract was suspended the following month and then unilaterally terminated in October 2024 after the transport company received multiple complaints regarding his behaviour and use of inappropriate language.
At a meeting on October 15, 2024, the taxi driver said he was told the conversations at the centre of the complaints largely related to his transgender identity and the reasons for his transition, including a previous sexual assault, reports The Mirror.
He told the WRC that the discussions were consensual exchanges between adults when no children were present and that the SNA who complained had encouraged such conversations when he believed he was in a “safe space.”
He said the SNA had begun questioning him after he stopped transitioning and returned to work with a beard, reports The Mirror.
The taxi driver said the contract was his sole source of income and that he had been unable to secure work since, which had caused him ongoing stress and anxiety.
He denied any wrongdoing and said he felt he had been unfairly deprived of a job he loved, reports The Mirror.
Counsel for the transport company, Niamh McGowan BL, said the company acted reasonably and in the best interests of service users when it terminated the taxi driver’s contract due to serious breaches of its code of conduct and safety procedures.
Ms McGowan said the company had no issue with the driver’s transgender status and that he was treated in the same way as any other contractor, reports The Mirror.
The WRC heard the company was alerted to a complaint from an SNA by the school’s principal, which raised a number of concerns.
These included disclosures of sexual abuse, descriptions of a couple being intimate in a doorway and walking in on a partner being intimate with another man, reports The Mirror.
The taxi driver was also accused of asking the SNA if she was “playing the field” and making references to “hump day” in connection with “getting a ride.”
The WRC also heard claims that he commented on experiences with intimate waxing and made inappropriate contact with relatives of some children, reports The Mirror.
The company said the school principal informed it by email on September 27, 2024 that the taxi driver had continued to behave inappropriately with multiple parties despite having been suspended.
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