Employers should provide proper induction courses and support services for foreign workers, the Labour Court has recommended. Because non-nationals do not have the same support networks as local workers, employers have a high duty of care towards them, it says.
This follows an award of €15,000 to a Russian woman found to have suffered discrimination on the grounds of nationality by the Labour Court. The woman paid $1,000 to a recruitment agency to come to Ireland to work in a nursing home. However, when she arrived she was told this job was no longer available and she would have to work in a factory owned by the same employer instead.
She accepted this on the understanding that this would be temporary and that she would eventually work in the position for which she had been recruited.
Following differences with her employer about work issues and about her behaviour, she was suspended, then ordered off the premises and told she was sacked. Her action involved claims that she was discriminated against on the grounds of gender (by sexual harassment) and nationality.
The Labour Court found that she did not establish a case that she had been sexually harassed. However, it found she had been discriminated against on the grounds of nationality and awarded her €15,000 in compensation.
The court also strongly recommended that companies employing non-nationals recognise difficulties that may arise and provide proper induction courses, and that they make resources available to enable the workers to deal with any social and cultural differences.
The court also expressed concern about the attitude of the recruitment agency, which considered it had no further duty of care once it had passed the workers on to the employer.