A waitress fired from a restaurant when she was pregnant has been awarded more than €14,000 in compensation.
Jevgenija Petrakova worked at the Admiral restaurant on Marlborough Street, Dublin, for six weeks before she was let go on March 30, 2009.
She claimed she had been subjected to discriminatory treatment, harassment, sexual harassment and discriminatory dismissal on the grounds of her gender and race.
Lexor Entertainment Limited, which runs the Russian-themed diner, denied all of the allegations.
Tara Coogan, of the Equality Tribunal, ruled Ms Petrakova did not establish a case of discriminatory treatment, harassment or sexual harassment on the grounds of her gender or race.
However she found there had been a case of discriminatory dismissal on the gender ground and ordered the restaurant to pay the complainant €14,167.92 compensation in lieu of nine months salary.
"I am satisfied that the complainant was pregnant at the material time and that the respondent was aware of this," she said.
"It is clear that the respondent has not been able to establish exceptional circumstances to justify the dismissal of the complainant in this case and that the complainant was given nothing pertaining to a redundancy or her conduct in the workplace in writing."
Ms Petrakova, an ethnic Russian with Latvian nationality, had submitted that all staff working in the restaurant were also ethnic Russians of Latvian or Lithuanian nationality and that they were harassed - although no direct evidence was provided to the Equality Tribunal.
She revealed she was in the job for just two weeks when she discovered she was pregnant and notified her employer in writing immediately.
However Ms Petrakova, who had to take two weeks' sick leave linked to a risky pregnancy, maintained her hours were cut to as little as 5.5 hours a week after her time off and that she was not called back to work after the restaurant temporarily closed in April.
She also claimed a supervisor made comments about her pregnancy, which had not been reported to the staff member's boss.
Ms Coogan said: "This failure to report the alleged comments means, in the circumstances of this case, that the respondent cannot be held liable for the alleged comments made by an employee."
PA