A woman who ran a state-funded course designed to empower socially disadvantaged women and was then sacked after it was found she employed one of the participants to clean her home, has been awarded €1,000 for unfair dismissal.

Sharon Walsh of Knockboy in Waterford was hired by the Waterford Women's Community Network ? a voluntary organisation which deals with marginalised women suffering long-term unemployment, poverty and racism.

The network hired Walsh to coordinate a course designed to politicise the women so they could "challenge and influence decisions that would affect their lives".

The project received funding from Pobal, the state organisation that supports communities to achieve social inclusion. Fás funded the training element of the project.

Giving evidence, the Network said it discovered that Walsh "had employed one of the course trainees to work in her home as a domestic cleaner".

"The project was about the support and empowerment of marginalised women and employing a participant as a cleaner introduced a dynamic that was wholly contrary to the ethos of the organisation," the network explained.

The directors had a long history in the voluntary sector "and a reputation to maintain," it added. The Network was also concerned about "the legal status of the work relationship" and the implications that working over the maximum 20 hours a week allowed would have for the participant's social welfare benefit, it said.

In evidence, the trainee said she did not feel exploited and had offered to work for Walsh.

The network also raised questions about "substantial payments of €2,850" to Walsh's husband, a lecturer, to deliver the computer element of the course and believed this was contrary to Pobal's guidelines for public procurement.

Walsh said she was "shocked" when she was presented with a list of 16 complaints against her at a disciplinary meeting during which she was represented by a union official. Nothing was agreed at this heated meeting and two days later Walsh was sacked.

The tribunal chair said that while the network had "acted hastily" in sacking Walsh, she had "breached the trust reposed in her" and had "contributed substantially to her dismissal".