Labour Court sets aside €8,385.84 recommendation to Institute of Technology Sligo worker

The Labour Court allowed the Institute of Technology Sligo’s appeal and set aside a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation for €8,385.84 in severance pay to a worker whose fixed-term contract was not renewed. The decision was signed on 18 November 2010. The worker had expected permanent employment; the Institute argued that no payment was due when the substantive post-holder returned. The Court accepted that the employment had not ended by reason of redundancy and treated the claim as compensation for the expiry without renewal of a fixed-term contract. It said it had not been referred to an example of a similar compensatory payment elsewhere in the public sector.