The Equality Tribunal is independent in the exercise of its quasi-judicial functions and I have no direct involvement in its day to day operations. The Equality Tribunal has jurisdiction to investigate and decide upon complaints of discrimination under the Employment Equality Acts, the Equal Status Acts and the Pensions Acts. The Equality Tribunal also provides a statutory mediation service.
Under the Employment Equality Acts a person who believes that he or she may have experienced discrimination is entitled under Section 76 of the Acts to write to the person he or she believes may have carried out the discriminating action asking for certain information. A statutory form of questionnaire (Form EE.2) is available from the Tribunal and can be downloaded from the website. A statutory reply form gives the person who receives the questionnaire an opportunity to set out his or her version of events. This form is available (Form EE.3) from the Tribunal and can be downloaded from the website. The Acts state that the Director may draw such inferences as seem appropriate from a respondent failing to reply, or supplying false, misleading or inadequate information.
Under the Equal Status Acts a service provider could be a bank, an educational institution etc. Under the Acts notification of a complaint must be in writing and sent by the complainant to the respondent within two months of the incident complained of (or, in the case of repeated incidents, the most recent one), stating the nature of the allegation and the intention to seek redress under the Equal Status Acts, if not satisfied with the service provider’s response. This standard form allows for questions to be asked of the service provider. A sample reply form is also available to the service provider (Form ES.2) and these forms can be downloaded from the website. The service provider is not obliged to reply but the Acts state that the Tribunal may draw such inferences as seem appropriate if the service provider does not reply or provides a false, misleading or unhelpful reply.
Both parties to a complaint before the Equality Tribunal under equality legislation are requested to provide information in advance of a hearing. The Equality Tribunal does not have the power to compel either party to provide this in advance of the hearing. The Equality Officer, as part of his or her independent investigation ensures that all relevant evidence is provided and both parties are given the opportunity to respond to the evidence. This is in accordance with the principles of fair procedures that underpin the investigation of claims before the Equality Tribunal. Furthermore, Equality Officers have the power under equality legislation to obtain information which they consider they require to enable them to exercise their investigative functions.
As the Deputy will be aware, from 1 October, 2015, a new two-tier Workplace Relations structure will be established comprising two statutorily independent bodies replacing the current five (i.e. the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Equality Tribunal, the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court). We will have a new single body of first instance to be called the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and a separate appeals body, which will effectively be an expanded Labour Court.
Following the establishment of the new structures all complaints under equality legislation will be dealt with at first instance by the WRC Adjudication Service and on appeal by the Labour Court (with the exception of complaints under the Equal Status Acts where appeals will continue to be dealt with by the Circuit Court). The Workplace Relations Act 2015, which will give legislative effect to these reforms, does not provide for any amendments to the existing provisions within the corpus of employment rights and equality legislation (including the Employment Equality Acts or the Equal Status Acts) which provide for the powers that are currently available to Equality Officers. The powers which were previously available to Equality Officers under those Acts will continue to be available to WRC Adjudication Officers following the establishment of the WRC.
