Labour Court awards worker €5,000 after HSE appeal

The Labour Court awarded a worker €5,000 after finding that Health Service Executive Dublin/North East procedures and delays prolonged her expectation of appointment to a senior practitioner post. In a decision dated 19 February 2009, the Court varied the Rights Commissioner's recommendation, while endorsing its view that management could leave the post unfilled and that any future vacancy should be filled by competition. The worker had been placed on a panel for the post in the Social Work department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. The HSE said the panel had expired and it delayed filling the post while it investigated workplace difficulties. The Labour Court said its procedures and delays created and prolonged the worker's expectation of appointment, and awarded compensation.