A Women's Refuge service worker resigned her permanent job after claiming she was psychologically bullied by other staff over a period of time, an Employment Appeals Tribunal heard in Galway yesterday.
Ms Yvonne Walsh, from Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, took an action for constructive dismissal against the committee of the Mayo Women's Refuge Centre, Castlebar, and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, who set up the service. Staff at the refuge and the society deny the allegation.
Ms Walsh, a mother of two, claimed her life had been made "a living nightmare" while she worked at the centre from March 1997 to September 30th, 1999, when she resigned.
She said she dreaded coming into work every day and often vomited on the side of the road due to the stress she was under.
She claimed she was psychologically bullied by the boss directly over her, Ms Josephine McGourty, project manager at the refuge centre.
"She took my self-esteem and confidence away. She had me in such a way, I didn't know whether I was doing right or wrong. On one occasion she said I was answering the phone too quickly, on another occasion, I was answering it too slowly. In the end it didn't matter what I did, it was always wrong." She said she was admitted to the intensive care unit at Mayo General Hospital in the summer of 1998 with a suspected heart attack, brought on by the stress she suffered at work.
Defending barrister, Mr John Jordan, put it to Ms Walsh yesterday that she had been merely looking for attention when she claimed to have had a heart attack. Doctors at the hospital and at the Mater Hospital in Dublin had found nothing wrong with her heart and it had been suggested to her that she see a psychiatrist.
He said Ms Walsh's own sister, Jackie, had called her an attention-seeking hypochondriac whose imagination often ran away with her. Jackie rang staff at the refuge in the summer of 1998 to let them know the plaintiff had not suffered a heart attack, and had been extremely angry with her sister for claiming to be so ill. Mr Jordan put it to the plaintiff that she was a "consummate controller" of every situation she found herself in and she liked to dramatise things. He outlined dates during which Ms Walsh was on sick leave from her job. Medical certificates suggested she suffered from either oesophagitis, gastritis, sinusitis and suspected angina and chest pain on the various dates in question.
Ms Walsh said she returned to work when her doctor told her she was fit to do so. She said she was on continual preventative medication for her heart and used an oxygenator machine at home to open her airways.
Mr Jordan said Ms Walsh had helped nominate Ms McGourty for the Mayo Person of the Year Award in 1998 and it was unusual she should do so if Ms McGourty was bullying her.
Ms Walsh said she had helped in the nomination because she recognised the great work Ms McGourty had done and her complaint was a completely separate issue. She said she had hoped things would have changed when she returned to work last September, following the suspected heart attack.
However, she said she was taken off her normal duties and all of the staff had turned against her. Allegations were made that she had not been sick at all, and that her son was not as sick as she had claimed. "I couldn't take any more and I resigned," she said. The hearing continues today.