The "beep test", a standard aerobic fitness test for prospective firefighters for the last 40 years, discriminates against women and advantages younger candidates, a tribunal has found, following a legal challenge by a prospective recruit.

Cork Fire Brigade has been ordered to pay €8,000 in compensation to Terézia Foott, a part-time firefighter aged in her 40s who failed to advance in a November 2023 recruitment competition for a full-time post because she did not make the cut.

Ms Foott, a qualified sports therapist and personal trainer, said she passed every element of the fitness test on the day on 17 November 2023.

She was already working with Cork County Fire and Rescue as a part-time firefighter, engine driver and mechanic, and was subject to aerobic fitness testing every three years to stay in the job.

The "beep test", the tribunal heard, consists of a timed shuttle run where candidates must repeatedly dash a set distance, keeping time with a recorded beep track, getting faster and faster each time until they fail to hit their mark and fall out, or complete the course.

Cork City’s Chief Fire Officer David Spillet said the beep test had been used in Cork since the 1980s.

"There is no separate standard for males and females; the same fitness requirements apply to all candidates to ensure they are capable, fit, and healthy for operational duties," he told the Workplace Relations Commission.

However, he said testing methods could vary from service to service.

The minimum score was 9.6 shuttles, which equated to oxygen consumption, VO2 max, of 42ml/kg the WRC was told.

Ms Foott’s case was that on the day, she was held to the same standard as the man in his 20s who completed the beep test alongside her on the day.

Her score on the day equated to 37.4ml/kg VO2 max, which was "at the highest edge of the ‘above average’ category’" for aerobic performance for a 43-year-old woman.

She told the tribunal that she went for a VO2 Max test in Dublin the week after the Cork Fire Brigade trials and registered a VO2 max of 45.2ml/kg.

Ms Foott said a different test, the Chester treadmill test, was in use in her current job.

Mr Spillet said the fire brigade used the beep test because it was "practical for group assessments".

The complainant’s position was that the beep test was "cheap and dirty" as a way of assessing aerobic capacity compared to other methods.

She said she asked the fire service to let her take a retest on a gaseous exchange machine on a treadmill, but the Cork City Council human resources officers in charge of the recruitment competition turned her down, she said.

Ms Foott was told she could retake the test on another day with another fire service, an option the complainant turned down, the tribunal heard.

Adjudication officer Úna Glazier-Farmer upheld Ms Foott’s complaint under the Employment Equality Act 1998.

She ruled that the use of the timed shuttle and other standards for as a run as a "one-size-fits-all" standard without grading on a normative curve to consider age and gender was indirectly discriminatory.

"The respondent openly acknowledged in its evidence that there was no separate standard for males and females, and that the same fitness requirements applied to all candidates," she noted.

In Ms Foott’s case, the beep test used by Cork Fire Brigade "was both directly discriminatory towards the complainant and indirectly discriminatory against women, while giving younger candidates a distinct advantage", Ms Glazier-Farmer wrote.

She directed payment of €4,000 for gender discrimination and a further €4,000 for age discrimination.

CW Ashe and Co Solicitors appeared for Ms Foott in the case and Cork City Council was represented by the Local Government Management Agency.