Allegations of age discrimination brought by senior civil servants have cost the taxpayer nearly £70,000 even though the tribunal they launched to take up their case was abandoned.
Fiona Hamill, Treasury officer of accounts and Michael Brennan, an economist in the central expenditure within the Department of Finance and Personnel alleged “indirect age discrimination” against younger staff who they claimed had no hope of ever catching up with the salaries of older colleagues.
The pair brought the DFP to an industrial tribunal in February but abandoned their case before it was concluded and following repeated failed attempts to ascertain the cost of the case from Stormont, the figure was finally answered following a written Assembly question by Green Party Leader Steven Agnew.
Responding in the Assembly, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson revealed his department had spent £68,260 on legal costs and that it was “normal procedure” for the department to pay its own legal costs, even when it won.
Article from Belfast Telegraph