A veteran manager at a HIV charity who claims she is being targeted for voicing concerns about the use of public money is facing disciplinary action after being accused of bullying and transphobia towards a colleague, a tribunal has heard.
The manager is alleged to have questioned the “worth” and “health status” of a trans woman colleague who is openly HIV-positive in an interaction the other worker said she regarded as transphobic “at worst”.
Erin Nugent, a project co-ordinator at HIV Ireland, is pursuing a complaint under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 against her employer.
Disciplinary action is currently on hold pending the outcome of the statutory complaint to Workplace Relations Commission, the tribunal heard on Friday.
Ms Nugent has worked at the organisation since the early 1990s, when it was established as the Dublin Aids Alliance, the WRC heard.
She alleges she is being penalised for raising concerns about the use of a €20,000 grant from the HSE for work on a campaign called Fast Track Cities, a UN-backed anti-HIV programme.
HIV Ireland’s former treasurer Hugh Nolan gave evidence that an investigation process he chaired recommended a disciplinary hearing after upholding allegations against Ms Nugent concerning interactions with the charity’s executive director, Stephen O’Hare and other staff at the organisation, between July and October 2024.
Among the findings of the probe was that that Ms Nugent questioned the health status of a colleague, Rebecca de Havilland, the charity’s coordinator for HIV testing in the trans community since January 2023.
Ms de Havilland said in evidence that she was a 68-year-old trans woman who had lived with HIV since she was first diagnosed in in the UK in 1987.
She said weekly staff meetings at HIV Ireland had, by 2024, “turned into battles” with attendees shouting over each other.
At one meeting on 31 July 2024, she said there was a “really heated” argument between Ms Nugent and the executive director, Mr O’Hare.
“One said: ‘You’re bringing this place into disrepute'”, she said.
The other replied: “No you are,” she added.
“Ms Nugent was going to advise people living with HIV not to have anything to do with HIV Ireland,” Ms De Havilland said.
“I remember storming out of the meeting and going up the stairs. Ms Nugent came up on the inside of me; she was apologising profusely about the way she’d treated me. I said it’s okay, just leave me be, let me go,” Ms De Havilland said.
She said Ms Nugent persisted and she then told the complainant: “Can you eff off out of my face?”
Ms Nugent returned after six weeks’ sick leave and apologised, and Ms De Havilland said she told her it was “water under the bridge”.
A few days later, Ms Nugent called her in and questioned her about her testing project.
“She wanted to know what my worth was in HIV Ireland, and I took that very seriously,” she said.
She said she was “not very academic” and had to work at learning to use a computer and enter the workplace in recent years.
“I’m a person who’s been living this since ’87 – I’m still a minority within a minority. I’ve managed to train up eight trans girls to do rapid testing. We’re moving in strengths” she said.
“To be judged or criticised or whatever, or to even out of curiosity to ask me these questions, I find it at least insensitive and at worst I felt it was a bit phobic,” she said.
“”Transphobic?” adjudicator Breiffni O’Neill said.
“At worst,” Ms de Havilland said.
“She even went as low as to question my illness,” Ms de Havilland added.
Ms De Havilland said she had explained her background in response to the alleged remark about her “worth”. She said Ms Nugent listened and then told her: “I wish you’d tell me more about your lot so I can help you.”
“I didn’t know what she meant by ‘my lot’. I walked out pretty silent,” she said.
She said she had a “very positive” relationship with Ms Nugent, when she joined the organisation. Ms Nugent had assisted her with her housing situation when she was facing losing her home earlier in her employment.
Ms de Havilland said that because she had assisted with her housing difficulties, Ms Nugent was privy to her salary.
She said she thought that was why she “wanted to know what my worth was, why I was being paid that much”, she said.
Ms Nugent had denied accusing Mr O’Hare of bringing the charity into “disrepute”, but agreed using a different word, Mr Nolan said.
Mr O’Hare, the HIV Ireland executive director, told the WRC he did not consider a letter sent by Ms Nugent criticising his leadership of the organisation to be a protected disclosure, as her trade union alleged.
Ms Nugent had taken issue with Mr O’Hare appointing one of her colleagues as coordinator of the Fast Track Cities initiative, using a €20,000 grant to part-fund that person’s salary.
“In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t an awful lot of money,” Mr O’Hare said.
There was some “back and forth” with the HSE about how the Fast Track Cities project was being managed, he said.
He said he explained the issues raised by Ms Nugent in her letter to the board. “Wrongdoing or misspending of government funds, I knew there was none of that,” he said.
He denied that disciplinary action was taken against Ms Nugent for whistleblowing.
He said he had referred Ms Nugent’s alleged conduct to the charity’s board for consideration as a potential disciplinary matter.
He said this was after Ms Nugent accused him of bringing the organisation into disrepute at the 31 July 2024 staff meeting.
“I said it was constant bullying and harassment, unbecoming of a manager,” Mr O’Hare said.
Louise O’Hara, of trade union Fórsa, said her client’s concern was about the “level of transparency” about how money had been used and that “there were things happening that were perhaps not appropriate about how a charity should manage its finances”.
HIV Ireland is represented by Aoife McMahon BL, led by Lewis Silken Ireland LLP.
The case has been adjourned to the autumn, when Ms Nugent is expected to give her evidence.
