Irish dairy firm Golden Valehas been ordered to pay I£85,000 to one of its former employees on the grounds of sex discrimination. Rebecca O'Malley joined the company as divisional marketing manager for cheese and spreads, responsible for the Cheestrings brand, in January 1998 from the CWS. She invoked the grievance procedure after her job was given to a male colleague in March 1999 and she was demoted. She was dismissed in the May, after putting her complaint of sexual discrimination to the Labour Relations Commission and six days after she told her employer she was pregnant. O'Malley said that this sum was a huge amount for Ireland and that awards were usually less than I£15,000. "I feel vindicated," she said. Although Golden Vale lost the sex discrimination case, O'Malley's claim against the company for equal pay was dismissed by the Employment Tribunal. A spokeswoman for Golden Vale said the company believed it acted fairly in relation to this matter and plans to appeal against the size of the award. {{NEWS }}

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