The Enterprise vehicle hire group has been directed to compensate an employee with €10,000 who claimed she was subjected to “humiliation” and obliged to revert to her previous position after learning that her raise on promotion was going to be drastically less than her male counterparts in the organisation.
Bernadette Ryan complained to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that she was informed her salary would amount to €39,000 to €40,000 upon her promotion to the role of assistant depot manager at ERAC Ireland Ltd, trading under the name of Enterprise Flex-E-Rent.
She was already serving in a part-time capacity at the Dublin depot, garnering a yearly income of €31,000, as stated to the tribunal.
Ms Ryan reportedly discovered a month after she commenced her new duties and extended her working week from 28 to 40 hours that her employer was planning to bestow only a 10% raise on her, barely allowing her salary to surpass €34,000.
Ms Ryan’s employment history with the Enterprise conglomerate began when they acquired an Irish freight and transport company, Walkers, in a buyout that took place in April 2020, just over two years prior to her stepping into the assistant depot manager role in July 2022.
Ms Ryan insisted she had been repeatedly informed that her “salary would be €39,000” and she would have refused the promotion had she been aware that the pay hike was merely going to be 10%.
The tribunal was informed that the compensation of two other assistant depot managers was €38,500.
Ms Ryan shared her feelings of humiliation and embarrassment upon learning six weeks into her new position that her pay rise was merely 10%, which she felt compelled to refuse and return to her former role “I felt I had no choice and felt abandoned,” she stated in an email to her employer which was sent on 16 October 2022.
According to Anthony Ives, the company’s area manager, his statement of “€39,000” to Ms Ryan was due to his mistake. He revealed to the tribunal that the €39,000 figure was dependent on “target earnings,” a detail he failed to elaborate to Ms Ryan.
The firm asserted that Ms Ryan’s deserved salary for the promotional role was €34,414.38. This calculation was established by applying a 10% raise to her preceding hourly pay of €15, assuming a 40-hour work week. This role also included benefits such as a company car and a private healthcare plan. However, Ms Ryan had disputed this, as her male counterparts in similar roles reportedly had better remuneration.
Lewis Silken Ireland, representing the company, and led by Orla Murphy BL, responded that the male assistant depot managers, whom Ms Ryan used for comparison, were responsible for depots that were significantly larger or involved more responsibilities. The company further explained that one of these managers reached the €38,500 salary after receiving the same 10% pay hike earned by Ms Ryan on promotion, whereas the other manager was already at this salary level due to a company transfer.
A letter shared with the tribunal from the company’s lawyers revealed that while Ms Ryan’s job title was similar to other Assistant Depot Managers, the depots they managed were substantially larger. One managed a depot 50% larger, the other managed a depot that was three times larger. The lawyers maintained that the difference in depot size provided a legitimate reason for the pay difference, and there was no disparity in treatment.
Nevertheless, Adjudicator Caroline Reidy concluded a different finding. It was determined that the remuneration difference between Ms Ryan and her male colleagues could not be justified on any grounds other than gender, all were conducting similar tasks. Thus, she upheld Ms Ryan’s complaint and ordered that the company pay her a compensation of €10,000 for the gender-based discriminatory treatment she had experienced.