THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS    

CASE REF:    1348/11

CLAIMANT:	Frances Margaret Colvin

RESPONDENT:	The Driver Vehicle Agency

DECISION ON A REVIEW

The unanimous decision of the tribunal is that the respondent is ordered to pay £2,160.00 interest on the tribunal’s award of £9,000.00 compensation for injury to feelings arising from a finding of sex discrimination.

Constitution of Tribunal:

Chairman:	Mr B Greene

Members:	Mr J Boyd
	Ms M Galloway

Appearances:

There was not a hearing in relation to this review.

1.	On 30 January, 13, 14 and 21 February 2012, at Belfast, a claim by the claimant against the respondent for discrimination on the ground of sex and less favourable treatment on the ground of her part-time working status was heard.

2.	The tribunal found in favour of the claimant in relation to both her claims and awarded her £9,000.00 for injury to feelings for the sex discrimination claim only.

3.	The tribunal’s decision was issued on 25 May 2012.

4.	Subsequent to the issue of the decision the Chairman realised that the tribunal had not considered the awarding of interest on the award for injury to feelings, as it is required to do by Regulation 3(1) of the Industrial Tribunals (Interest on Awards in Sex and Disability Discrimination Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 No. 581.

5.	On his own initiative the chairman, on behalf of the tribunal, caused a Notice to be served on the parties, dated 22 June 2012, drawing the omission to consider the awarding of interest to their attention.  The Notice further indicated that the tribunal proposed to review its decision of its own motion and to extend time to enable it to do so.  The parties were invited to give reasons why the tribunal should not review its decision within seven days.

6.	By e-mail of 29 June 2012, the respondent’s solicitor indicated that the respondent did not object to the tribunal reviewing this aspect of its decision.  However, it added that the respondent wished to make representations on the awarding of interest.

7.	By letter of 2 July 2012, the claimant’s legal representative indicated that she did not object to the tribunal reviewing the decision and subject to any representations from the respondent, the claimant was content that the review proceed without any input from the claimant’s representatives.

8.	By letter of 5 July 2012, the respondent’s solicitor stated that as the claimant’s representative does not intend to make any representations on the matter then the respondent’s representative would take a similar approach.

9.	Accordingly, the tribunal decided to extend time, in the interests of justice, under Regulation 10(2)(e) of Schedule 1 of the Industrial Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 to enable it to review its decision of 25 May 2012 as regards the awarding of interest on the award made.

10.	Regulation 3(1) of the Industrial Tribunals (Interest on Awards and Sex Discrimination Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 No. 581 requires the tribunal to consider the awarding of simple interest in circumstances where it has made an award of compensation for injury to feelings following a finding of sex discrimination.

11.	For non-pecuniary loss the award relates to the entire period from the date of the act complained of to the date of calculation (Regulation 7(1)(a) Industrial Tribunals (Interest and Awards on Sex and Disability Discrimination Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996).

12.	The tribunal has a discretion whether to award interest or not or to calculate interest as it considers appropriate having regard to whether in any particular case a ‘serious injustice’ would be caused if interest were to be awarded (Regulation 7(3)) Industrial Tribunals (Interests and Awards on Sex and Disability Discrimination Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996).

13.	In view of the findings in the tribunal’s decision and in the absence of any representations that the awarding of interest would cause a serious injustice the tribunal decided to award simple interest on its award of £9,000.00.

14.	The first act of sex discrimination was in July 2009 when the respondent failed to consider the claimant for training to become an LGV examiner when her comparator, Shane Harbinson, was nominated although he did not satisfy one of the conditions for training as an LGV examiner.

15.	The award on which interest is to be calculated is £9,000.00.  The time period is three years (ie, from July 2009 to July 2012) the rate of interest is 8% (County Court rate of interest).

16.	£9,000.00  x  8  x  3/100   =     £2,160.00.

17	According to the tribunal awards the claimant £2,160.00 of interest on her award of £9,000.00.

18.	This is a relevant decision for the purposes of the Industrial Tribunals (Interest) Order (Northern Ireland) 1990.

Chairman:

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: