The Equality Tribunal has awarded more than €35,000 in compensation to a transsexual for gender discrimination.

The worker, whose new identity is Louise Hannon (50, pictured), won the case against former employer First Direct Logistics Ltd yesterday.

Hannon, who was born a male, has not had an operation and was not undergoing hormone treatment when an employee of the company, was biologically male throughout the events adjudicated upon by the Tribunal.   Hannon has become the first worker to successfully use the Employment Equality Act in a case of discrimination on the grounds of claiming to be a transsexual.

The tribunal found that Hannon was discriminated against by the employer on the basis of gender and disability and was awarded €35,422.71 plus interest from Direct Logistics.

Hannon worked as a man when a business development manager for the company for five years before claiming to management in October 2006 to be a transsexual and would be leaving the company the following May.

However, the company encouraged Hannon to stay in the job and in December 2006 there was a meeting with company officials to discuss the workplace implications of the transition. Hannon was asked to wait a few months to accommodate a new staff member.

Hannon changed his name by deed poll in March 2007, but was told he would have to work the phones as a man from home, while a new office was set up, and would have to revert to a male identity when meeting clients. He was also forbidden from using the women’s toilet at work.

Despite several requests from him to return to the office, he was eventually told that a new employee had been hired and there was no room for him at the office, the tribunal heard.

On July 19, 2007, she was told by the company director that he was not happy with his work.

He again asked to be allowed to work from the office but was refused on the grounds that his presence “caused a bad atmosphere”. He left the company at the end of the month claiming that she had been constructively dismissed

The company countered that it had made every effort to accommodate the transition and claimed that he was depressed and unable to generate new sales.

However, the Equality Officer investigating the case found that “requesting Ms Hannon to switch between a male/female identity whenever the respondent felt the need for it constituted direct discrimination on the gender and disability grounds”

Hannon had been diagnosed as having Gender Identity Disorder, a psychiatric condition in which a person believes they were born in the wrong sex.

The officer also found that forcing Hannon to work from home was discriminatory and he was isolated at home from late April 2007.

Last night, a spokesman for the firm apologised, noting he was a “popular and respected member of staff”.

“We regret the circumstances in which we failed to provide a full level of support and understanding,” he said.

The ruling was applauded by the Equality Authority’s chair Angela Kerins.

She said: “I am pleased the Employment Equality Acts have proven to be robust in the defence of transsexual rights in the workplace.”