“Minister’s action caused 15 months of needless hardship to fixed-term staff”
In an important ruling, the Labour Court has determined that two Fixed-Term Contract Lecturers, who lost their jobs when the Department of Education closed St Catherine’s College of Education for Home Economics, must be paid the same ex-gratia redundancy as their permanent colleagues.
The Labour Court also awarded additional compensation of €2500 each to the two women.
IFUT, which fought the case on behalf of their members, has warmly welcomed the ruling.
“One notable aspect of this case”, said Mike Jennings, General Secretary, “is that I personally made direct pleas to the then Minister, Mary Hanafin, not to embark on this illegal discrimination. Regrettably, the Minister each time rebuffed our representations”.
The Labour Court has formally noted that the Barrister who represented the Department of Education at the Labour Court Hearing “rightly conceded that the stated position of the Minister is unsustainable in law”.
The IFUT press release is available in full here.
The full text of the Labour Court Determination is available here.