Party denies discrimination claim

By Judith Cummings
BBC News

Mrs Hawkins was appointed Children's Spokesperson in 2001

A woman taking a discrimination case against the Alliance Party was "prone to exaggerations and is willing to mislead", a tribunal has heard.

The allegation was made by the legal team acting on behalf of the party and its leader David Ford.

Party employee Margaret Hawkins has refuted the claim and said the respondents were trying to paint her as a "scheming individual".

She claims she was a victim of age, gender and disability discrimination.

Mrs Hawkins said she "had no axe to grind and no wish to cause political damage to the Alliance Party".

She said she had been treated "unfairly" and was seeking redress.

The claimant said the Alliance Party was trying to insinuate she was "incompetent, had problems at home and who took as much time off work as she could get" and denied claims she was trying to "embarrass" the party into an early settlement.

Mrs Hawkins claimed that on 30 August 2007, seven years after she began working for the party, she was told that after a staff review her job no longer existed and she was offered a new position with a £7,000 drop in salary.

She said she was told she could only see details of new post if she accepted it and was told redundancy could be discussed, but no figures were given to her.

She said she became so stressed as a result of this meeting she made an appointment with her GP who said she was unable to return to work.

'Harassment'

In August 2005, Mrs Hawkins was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and said the condition began to impair the speed with which she completed some of her tasks at work.

She said she was a victim of "constant bullying and harassment" from then Party General Secretary Stephen Farry, who, she said, acted as her line manager from 2003 onwards.

The 2007 post-election staff restructuring review was carried out by Mr Farry.

In August 2007, Mrs Hawkins said she spoke to Jane Dunlop about the harassment and an investigation was carried out by Ms Dunlop and Trevor Lunn, both members of the Alliance Party, into the allegations.

In September she sent a letter of grievance to party leader David Ford appealing against the re-grading of her post and possible redundancy and cited age, gender and disability discrimination. She said she did not receive a reply from him.

However, in November of that year Alliance Party Executive Director Gerry Lynch said in a letter to Mrs Hawkins that he could find no basis for her grievance and while he knew her relationship with Mr Farry was at times bad, Ms Dunlop or Mr Lunn could not recall any complaint being made.

Performance

In response to a witness statement from Mr Ford, Mrs Hawkins expressed "surprise and disappointment" that her job performance was being called into question.

She questioned if that were the case why had he appointed her Children's Spokesperson for the party, a role she held until 2007, and why was she chosen to stand as a council candidate in North Belfast in 2005.

Mrs Hawkins maintained that younger, more able-bodied members of staff were treated better than she was and that no other member of staff lost out because of the staff review.

The case continues.