Limerick gym did not discriminate against Traveller, WRC rules

THE WORKPLACE Relations Commission (WRC) has found that a Limerick city hotel did not discriminate against a man who claimed staff at the hotel’s gym were trying to “embarrass” him because he was a Traveller.

The man alleged he was “shocked” by the way he was treated at the hotel’s gym last January when he was stopped after entering the gym’s changing room. 

The man, who had paid his membership fees three days prior but had not yet received an access card for the facilities, claimed he was told by staff they did not know how he had become a member of the gym as “spaces were limited.” 

However, the hotel “unequivocally” refuted the man’s claim that he was discriminated against because of his ethnicity, arguing he was stopped as a result of a “misunderstanding”, with no one denying his membership. 

The man joined the gym on Friday January 26 last year and was told at the time his membership card would not be ready until the following Monday. 

He claimed that when he returned to avail of the facilities on Monday January 29, there was no staff member at the gym’s reception desks so he made his way to the changing rooms.  The man also confirmed that he did not have a receipt with him at the time. 

He told the WRC he was met by the manager in the gym’s changing rooms, who brought him back to the reception. 

He claimed that both the manager and the membership officer told him that they did not know how did he become a member as membership was full. 

The manager refuted this claim, arguing that he asked the man to accompany him to the reception to ask the membership officer to issue him a membership card. The manager told the WRC that during this exchange the man said words to the effect of: “Is it because I am a Traveller that you have brought me out here to embarrass me?” 

After the exchange, the man did a lap around the gym and left. He subsequently cancelled his membership. Making its ruling, the WRC found that the man failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. “In the circumstances I do not find it unusual or unexpected that the complainant was approached by a staff member and it cannot be attributable to the complainant’s membership of the Traveller community.”