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A bus driver who treated a mother of two disabled children “unacceptably” and “as if he was doing her a favour” as she tried to board with a buggy and a toddler in heavy rain has cost his former employer €5,000 in compensation.
The Workplace Relations Commission made the award in a decision published this morning on foot of a complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 by the woman, who brought the legal action against an unidentified public bus operator on behalf of her two children.
At an equality hearing last month, the woman explained that she needs to use a special buggy to travel with two of her children, as they both have a “lifelong disability”.
On 26 July 2023, she was trying to get home through “pouring rain” with the two children in the buggy and a toddler, she said in evidence.
When the family went to board the bus, the complainant said the driver gave her a “dirty look”, to which she responded: “Is it not okay to get on?”
“Not really, no,” was the driver’s response, she said.
Her evidence was that she presented her travel card to the driver to show that she was a carer and asked what the problem was, only for the driver to shout at her: “Get on if you’re going.”
She felt the driver treated them “as if he was doing [us] a “favour”, she told the tribunal.
“This was despite the fact that she stood in the lashing rain with her three children and let everyone else board first to ensure that they were the last on so that they were not taking up extra space. The disabled space and the buggy space were both free so there was no issue,” the tribunal recorded in a summary of her evidence.
On foot of a complaint email, the bus company wrote: “The behaviour you have described is totally unacceptable and I can assure you that this type of behaviour is most certainly not tolerated or condoned under any circumstances,” a representative of the firm wrote in a replying email in July 2023. The email added that it was investigating the matter.
However, the WRC heard there was no further contact before the complainant sent a registered letter to the company on 22 September 2023. The complainant told the WRC she got no response to that either.
The bus company told the tribunal that the driver was identified and interviewed by local management over the incident. While taking part in an internal disciplinary process in early September 2023, the man “departed” the company, the firm added.
“It was clear that the driver in question’s behavioural characteristics were not in keeping with the respondent’s ethos or the level of professionalism expected as a public service employee,” the company added.
It apologised for a “lack of communication” with the complainant, citing “administrative and sick leave issues” and admitted that it ought to have given the complainant an update.
The woman told the WRC that because of the driver’s “attitude and behaviour” she had not used public transport since the incident because it caused her “stress, anxiety and embarrassment”.
The company’s accessibility manager offered at hearing to meet with the complainant and “travel with her and her children” so the firm could “better understand what it is doing right as a service provider and what challenges it needs to address”.
The bus company was not named as WRC adjudicator Marie Flynn anonymised her decision entirely to protect the identities of the minors involved in the case.
She wrote that there was no dispute the children suffered from a disability or that the incident took place and found the mother had been discriminated against on disability grounds.
Ordering the bus company to pay €5,000 in compensation, Ms Flynn added: “I would also encourage the complainant, when she feels able, to avail of the offers of assistance and support made by the respondent,” the adjudicator added.
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