The Supreme Court has set aside a High Court judgment in a long-running dispute between five appellants and the Minister for Agriculture & Food, remitting the matter to the Employment Appeals Tribunal for a fresh determination within its jurisdiction.
In a judgment dated 16 July 2015, Mr Justice John MacMenamin said the tribunal had wrongly treated an earlier High Court judgment as requiring it to find that the appellants were self-employed and had never been employed by the Minister. The tribunal itself had to decide, on the facts, whether an employment relationship existed, he said.
MacMenamin agreed with the order proposed by Mr Justice Peter Charleton and Ms Justice Laffoy, and said he adopted the narrative of events in Charleton’s judgment. He said the tribunal had acted outside its statutory power by proceeding on its mistaken understanding. He also concluded that Mr Justice Hedigan had erred and that his judgment should be set aside.
The court’s order returns the matter to the Employment Appeals Tribunal. It does not decide whether the appellants were employees or self-employed; that question remains for the tribunal. MacMenamin described the case’s long duration as “profoundly unfortunate” and expressed hope that the remittal would ultimately bring finality.
For the rehearing, MacMenamin suggested that the parties prepare a joint issue paper of no more than two A4 pages, identifying the questions for the tribunal, followed by written submissions of no more than 15 A4 pages addressing those issues in sequence. The tribunal would decide the timing and order of submissions and could allocate time for oral argument.
He noted that the parties accepted that evidence already heard could be considered through its transcript. If the parties could not agree on the issues, he suggested each side submit a proposed issue paper and the tribunal prepare its own list of issues for the written submissions.