Fran Matthews was awarded €25,000 after the Workplace Relations Commission found that Metropolitan Films International Limited penalised him by dismissing him after he sought permanent employment. In a decision dated 15 December 2023, the WRC also awarded him €5,000 for breaches involving successive specified-purpose contracts and the failure to provide written reasons.
Matthews worked as a plasterer on film and television productions, with breaks between productions. The WRC found that those breaks were layoffs within a continuing employment relationship and that Metropolitan Films International Limited, rather than the short-lived companies set up for individual films, was his employer. It also found his dismissal took effect on 1 December 2019, when he was not called back to work, making his January 2020 complaint timely.
The WRC found that repeated fixed-term contracts over many years entitled Matthews to a contract of indefinite duration, in effect a permanent contract. It concluded that the company penalised him when it dismissed him after he sought that status, and that it breached rules on objective grounds for successive contracts and written reasons. The awards compensate him for the dismissal-related breach and the contract-related breaches.