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Twenty women say they were not allowed return to work at end of their maternity leave last year

Complaints are on the rise amid legislative changes and growing global awareness of gender-related issues.

THE NUMBER OF complaints made under the Maternity Protection Act to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have almost doubled in a year.

Figures released by the body to Fora show there was a jump in complaints made under the act from 21 in 2017 to 39 in 2018.

Of the total complaints last year, 20 were from employees who said they were not allowed to return to work after the end of their maternity leave compared to 11 in 2017.

There were 12 complaints from those who said they did not receive their maternity leave at all, which was three more than the previous year. 

The body did not release data regarding the decisions made on the complaints. 

Therese Chambers, an associate at law firm William Fry, told Fora that it is “impossible to say exactly why there has been such an increase” but thinks it could be related to recent changes to family leave and flexible working laws which have brought the issues into the public eye. 

New legislation set to come into force on 1 November this year allows parents to take two weeks extra leave in the first year of their child’s life or adoption. There has also been increased discussion about the legislation surrounding companies reporting salaries to highlight gaps in gender pay. 

“It is likely the heightened global awareness of gender-related issues spinning from the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements has also had an impact on these numbers,” Chambers added.

“Employers are risking high WRC awards and more importantly, a big impact on their organisation’s reputation if they are not meeting their obligations. If employers don’t step up, I think this upward trend is likely to continue.”

Employment law lawyer Richard Grogan made the point the figures likely represent “a small fraction” of the number of people who have faced discrimination in the workplace regarding maternity leave, as many cases are resolved through mediation before they make it to the WRC to begin with. 

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Written by Laura Roddy and posted on Fora.ie

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    Mute Smiley
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    Dec 30th 2015, 7:03 AM

    It’s unreal when you remember it was only 30 years ago.

    191
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    Mute James Delaney
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:52 AM

    Its unreal when you think what happened – tital confusion.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Dec 30th 2015, 1:16 PM

    No total corruption by the Heavy Gang subsequently whitewashed by the judiciary which unbelievably facilitated a libel case by the corrupt heavy gang against Hayes.

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    Mute Dell
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:41 AM

    I remember this. I remember the Ann Lovett death too. The guards were most definitely wrong but they were fuelled by a society that thrived on gossiping and belittling, that were in church on Sundays praying for the forgiveness of sinners and in corner shops an hour later ostricising unmarried mothers. We have come a long way in a lot of respects but in recent times we still had the courtroom of people shaking a convicted rapists hand, we still have people making comments about women keeping their legs shut, people criticising single mothers but never single fathers… We still have a long way to go.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 12:20 PM

    Well said Dell.

    56
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    Mute Martin Gallagher
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    Dec 30th 2015, 8:58 PM

    Very well said Dell. As a society we’re very liberal now about gay rights but an ordinary woman’s right to decide on what’s best is another matter? Time to amend our outdated constitution, I’d think?

    21
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    Mute Carlovian77
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:44 AM

    As a member of AGS this case really saddens and sickens me – I remember it from when I was young. The ‘men’ that were sent from Dublin to Kerry to ‘get the truth’ did so at the expense of Joanne Hayes’s dignity and her good name. A lot of their ‘investigation work’ took place on high stools listening to idle gossip and accepting it as the truth. As the members were natives of the area people willingly spoke to them. Gerry O’Carrolls notion of there been two separate fathers of twins just shows how desperate they were to be seen to getting a result for Management above in Garda H.Q. and showed him for the fool he his. I have nothing but admiration for Joanna Hayes and the manner in which she has dealt with the whole situation – I do hope one day in the right forum she will tell her story, people need to hear about their appalling treatment. The worst and most shameful part of the whole scenario is that it never stopped the members from being promoted – the old boys school and all that which unfortunately is still around to some extent. I love my job and things have moved on but I’m not naive to the bulls*** that still goes on at times – quite nauseating really.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:08 AM

    Did O’Carroll block a book by Joanne Hayes?

    38
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    Mute Carlovian77
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:33 AM

    Yes, you’re correct actually. If memory serves me right Nell McCafferty was one of the co-authors. Quinnsworth at the time stocked it and the 4 members of AGS who were named in it took an action against them and were disgracefully awarded €127,000 – the absolute shame of it. I remember Gerry O’Carroll taking on Martin ‘The Generals’ daughter on the Late Late Show when she was trying to paint him as an ordinary every day Joe Soap! I would love someone like Nell McCafferty turn the tables on O’Carroll and show him up for the clown he is.

    I’m always amazed at these former members who take to ‘writing’ articles for newspapers when they retire – it clearly shows who was touting to them all along. One of O’Carroll’s Colleagues involved in the Kerry Babies scandal did the same when he retired but it was well known he was touting to the National newspaper and the same man would have no issue with disciplining a Garda on the beat if they weren’t dressed as per Code guidelines – the higher you go up the worse the hypocrisy gets!

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    Mute Paddy o'brian
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    Dec 30th 2015, 8:22 PM

    They got promoted alright and most of them became and died winos afterwards on their fat I’ll gotten pensions

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    Mute Amanda Whelan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 6:19 AM

    Pity DNA was not around at the time to enable the authorities to conduct a fair analysis of who the paternal parents were of the baby on the beach and on the farm in question ?, Would have cleared up a lot of unanswered questions perhaps stopped a witch hunt and found the fathers of these children more accountable. RIP to the infants

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    Mute Nick
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:51 AM

    It’s around now tho.

    51
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    Mute John B
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:04 AM

    So true, there is someone in Kerry hoping that will never happen though, and too many vested interests in the Gardai and judiciary to ensure it never happens.

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    Mute Nick
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:50 AM

    Wonder if retired detective o Carroll will give us an exclusive in the evening herald this week? What a sad society we were then, more interested in who was having sex with who rather than the welfare of the children born as a result. Don’t think any arm of the state covered themselves in glory back then.

    104
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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 12:19 PM

    As a society we still don’t care about children that are born, just once they are born! The statistics for homeless children and child poverty is a national disgrace.

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    Mute Keano
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    Dec 30th 2015, 3:09 PM

    A lot of people in the country don’t care about unborn children either, sadly.

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    Mute Valerie Marjoram
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:30 AM

    I remember this. I was just 11. It left a profound impact on me, not least a healthy distrust of authority and disgust of politicians. Attitudes such as those portrayed by the gardaí normally come from the top down.

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    Mute Joe Conway
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    Dec 30th 2015, 2:11 PM

    About 10 years after Anne Lovatt’s death I was up in Granard for a business meeting and got there early. It was a grey cold wet day and I drove up to the church and walked around to the grotto where she died with her infant son. It brought home to me what a truly awful for a young woman to die.

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    Mute men in black hoods
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:03 AM

    Backward holy joe/sephine’s

    47
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    Mute prop joe
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    Dec 30th 2015, 12:04 PM

    The incompetence if the cops and judiciary is incredible. Hard to believe the lack of professionalism in the forces of law and order.

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    Mute Paddy o'brian
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    Dec 30th 2015, 8:28 PM

    Their incompetence and lack of professionalism stemmed from the fact that they were unaccountable to no one hence incompetence, the two go together like a train and a track

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    Mute Peter Higgins
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    Dec 30th 2015, 6:09 PM

    This Gerry O’Carroll guy was the laughing stock of the nation at the time – so, what happens – he’s promoted. Only in Ireland!!

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    Mute SEAN LYNCH
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    Dec 30th 2015, 3:40 PM

    I remember this case when I was a young fellah, reading back now makes me realise how horrifically Joanne was treated, nowadays she would have been treated and given counselling. I do hope she gets to tell the harrowing story of childbirth out of wedlock in a sleepy village, to a new generation of understanding ears,bless her

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    Dec 30th 2015, 4:07 PM

    She did tell the story but was sued successfully by the Guards who ran the investigation.

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    Mute Robert Beatty
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    Dec 30th 2015, 2:03 PM

    Mad story jaysus we really did have our heads buried firmly up our arses

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    Mute Tim O'Halloran
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    Dec 30th 2015, 5:09 PM

    Only 30 years ago. Remember Kenny, Bertie and many more were already TDs at that time. They seemed to have no problem with how this case was handled at the time. They stayed silent about this and much else besides. When they pretend now to be enlightened and modern, take it with a pinch of salt.

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    Mute Mark Danger Sinnott
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    Dec 30th 2015, 5:49 PM

    A terrible period in Irish history. I’m glad that the country has grown up a bit, although I suspect there is a bit to go.

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    Mute Martin Molloy
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:45 PM

    “Blood tests showed that Joanne was not the mother of the Cahirciveen Baby ”

    This is not true.
    Blood tests showed that Joanne Hayes could not have produced the Cahirciveen baby with Jeremiah Locke the married man with whom she had been having a long-standing affair, and who was the father both of her young daughter and the Abbeydorney baby.
    The baby found on the beach with stab wounds had a blood group which ruled out Hayes and Locke being its two parents. It did not exclude the possibility that Hayes was its mother with another father. But as she was pregnant at the time with Locke’s baby it would have meant that she was bearing twins conceived by different fathers, the phenomenon of superfecundation, a theoretical possibility but one so extremely rare as to be beyond the limits of reasonable doubt.
    This case started off as a tragedy. It became a farce because the Gardai were so boneheaded about their right to interrogate simple country people in any way they saw fit and if confessions were extracted from them which turned out to be untrue, well then they could just drop the charges and the victims could walk away and consider themselves lucky.
    The Gardai were not wrong to investigate the death of a baby whose body, mutilated by multiple stab wounds, was found on a beach.
    They were not wrong to start by looking for a woman who might have been pregnant but had since given birth in irregular circumstances and not reported it. This was not “Sexual profiling of Kerry” FFS. It was making use of widely available local knowledge.
    They were not being unfair or inappropriate in deciding to question Joanne Hayes when they learned that on or about the day when the baby on the beach was discovered, she had gone into hospital saying she was miscarrying a pregnancy but was found instead to be no longer pregnant. Where was her baby?
    They could be forgiven for having their suspicions strengthened when Joanne Hayes and her family lied repeatedly during interrogation, saying she had not given birth to a baby, and that she had not even been pregnant. The cops KNEW this wasn’t true.
    Somehow, and the Tribunal didn’t find out how although it was the main purpose for which it was established, Hayes and several members of her family signed statements relating to the killing by stabbing of a new born baby and the disposal of its body in the sea. But the baby that Joanne Hayes eventually admitted to bearing was not stabbed and it was buried on her farm.
    When the Tribunal convened the Gardai, instead of coming clean and describing the real conduct of the investigation, fought bitterly and tried to maintain that the confessions had been fairly extracted and were true. To that end they had to come up with a load of farcical possible explanations, including the superfecundation theory and, even more bizarrely, the theory of the Azores Baby which was the twin of the Abbeydorney baby, conceived by Hayes through Locke, which had suffered identical stab wounds to the Caherciveen baby, was wrapped in Goulding Fertilizer bags, similar to those found on the beach beside that baby, and had been thrown into the sea by Hayes’ brothers, as the family’s confessions had detailed, but instead of being washed up on a Kerry beach it was instead bobbing along on the ocean waves in the direction of the Azores.
    And the cops wondered why they were a laughing stock!

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    Mute Paul Murphy
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:51 PM

    Fascinating stuff,a gain I was only a youngfella and it wasn’t discussed at home, only in reading this have I found out what the ins and outs of the whole thing was. Probably long forgotten by most

    7
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