A south Dublin car dealership has been ordered to pay a pregnant teenage saleswoman it sacked €28,000 for discrimination, after finding management knew she was pregnant and that its claim that she was not hitting sales targets of 20 cars per month as a new worker made "absolutely no sense".
The management of Soraghan Auto Retail Ltd, trading as the Sandyford Motor Centre, had claimed the worker, Abbie Walsh, was expected to match a sales target of 60 cars a quarter which applied to all of its sales executives, and that she "ran out of road".
Ms Walsh was 19 years old when she became pregnant while working for the dealership this spring.
She said she had just come from selling "batteries, bulbs and wiper blades" in a retail setting at Halfords and had been told she was not expected to meet the targets while serving her "apprenticeship" as a junior sales executive.
Upholding Ms Walsh's complaint of maternity-related discrimination under the Employment Equality Act 1998 against the dealership, a Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator rejected the management's defence, which she called "simply not credible".
"I do not accept the complainant 'ran out of road eventually' as stated by the respondent. I find the road was blocked for her," the adjudicator wrote.
Ms Walsh said she discovered she was pregnant on 24 March this year and decided she would put her employer formally on notice of her condition after her 12-week scan, as she feared for the viability of the pregnancy.
However, she said she had spoken to her line manager and one of the salesmen early in April - and believed news of her pregnancy had spread throughout the company by word of mouth before her dismissal.
The company denied all knowledge of Ms Walsh’s pregnancy, though neither of the men Ms Walsh said she had spoken to were called to give evidence.
Its representative, Colin Walsh of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, stated that both were gone from the firm.
The former sales director, Ms Walsh’s first line manager, had left the firm the day after she said she told him about her pregnancy to go into business for himself, the tribunal was told.
On 8 May, following a two-day absence due to morning sickness, a new line manager called her in and told her: "The lads upstairs have had a chat and they're deciding they're going to let you go. They're just not happy with the way things are going," Ms Walsh said.
"I asked him was it because I was sick. He said no. I said was it about anything I've done. He said no," Ms Walsh said.
She said the manager's words were: "It’s just the way they feel… they’re not a fan of the secrets."
Her response was: "My immune system's on the floor, the only secret's that I’m pregnant," she said.
"He just shrugged his shoulders and said: "They want you out today," she said.
"I was waiting for him to backtrack, [tell me] "I’ll go upstairs and chat with the lads", but it did not faze him," Ms Walsh said.
Nothing was said to her about performance at the meeting, the complainant said.
The complainant’s barrister, Seamus Collins, appearing instructed by Daniel O’Connell of Kean’s Solicitors, said the alleged "secrets" remark by the new line manager was "a clear allusion to her pregnancy and that the employer was aware".
Principal dealer Bruce Soraghan said he had discussed sales performance with Ms Walsh at monthly meetings.
"It would have been made quite clear, and I don’t miss. I know there's a difficult conversation coming our way. It would have been made clear to Abbie: 'You’re not making the numbers," Mr Soraghan said.
Mr Soraghan said Ms Walsh knew she would be getting into "a very hard role, cut-throat" and that she "ran out of road" - adding that selling three units in the month of April "doesn’t cut it".
He said a target for 60 car sales in the first quarter set by the firm applied equally to senior sales staff and people who had just started.
Group head of finance with the firm, Joe O’Grady, said Ms Walsh had sold just 24 new and used cars by the time she was dismissed on 8 May this year, he said.
"Mr Soraghan gave me the advice that I wouldn't hit those targets in any way as a junior salesperson," Ms Walsh said of a review meeting in January, adding that the same was said to her the following month.
Ms Walsh said everyone in the dealership told her the junior sales job was an "apprenticeship" and that the targets quoted by her former bosses were for senior staff.
She said the company’s then-sales manager told her she was "flying it" when she sold a car on her fourth day and that her bosses were "very impressed" with her performance in a month-end review meeting at the end of January this year.
In her decision on the case, adjudicator Eileen Campbell said she was satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the company "became aware" of Ms Walsh’s pregnancy after she informed the former sales director as this man "knew or ought to have known he was obliged" to pass the information on.
If there was any doubt, the dealership "certainly knew" after Ms Walsh told her new line manager when he called her in to sack her, Ms Campbell wrote.
"It is simply not credible and makes absolutely no sense that the complainant would be expected to sell 60 cars in the first quarter of the year, whilst just in the door, on probation and undertaking all the other tasks delegated to her," Ms Campbell added.
She added that the respondent’s data showing a "downward trajectory" in Ms Walsh’s sales figures between March and April 2023 had to be seen in context to seasonal trends in new car sales nationally, which "mirrored" Ms Walsh's.
Ms Campbell added that the respondent’s evidence on what happened during the review meetings was "unsatisfactory and lacking in candour in many respects", noting that there was "no documentary evidence" of any such conversations.
Upholding Ms Walsh's complaint of pregnancy-related discrimination, Ms Campbell awarded her €28,000 in compensation.
"This sum is awarded not only to compensate the complainant for the effects of the discriminatory treatment but also to dissuade the respondent from discriminatory acts into the future," she concluded.
