A Chechen woman who has already been awarded €15,000 compensation after she complained that she was victimised because of her religion and nationality, has failed with a separate claim she had suffered discrimination at work.
Djemma Tsourova was summarily dismissed in July 2003 by Icon Clinical Research Ltd after an internal investigation into a series of complaints she made.
She alleged she had been taunted by named colleagues and was the subject of derogatory comments about the fact that she was a Muslim and had been granted refugee status here.
The internal inquiry, with which Ms Tsourova refused to co-operate because she claimed it lacked independence, found that some of the allegations she made were "vexatious or malicious".
As a result of the inquiry findings she was sacked for "serious misconduct". Last year the court found she had been dismissed "in circumstances amounting to victimisation". Ms Tsourova, who worked for less than a year as a clinical data co-ordinator with Icon, was awarded €10,000 for economic loss and €5,000 "for the effects of the discrimination".
When she refused to co-operate with the internal inquiry, Ms Tsourova also took a case for "discrimination and victimisation" to the Equality Tribunal.
The complaints were investigated by an equality officer who found against Ms Tsourova. She appealed the finding to the court.
In a determination yesterday, the court disallowed her appeal concluding that her uncorroborated evidence of taunts and derogatory comments by colleagues "does not go far enough to establish as a fact that her work colleagues subjected her to the treatment alleged".