The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has ordered Metropolitan Films International Limited to pay stagehand Mark Loftus €5,000 compensation after finding breaches of fixed-term work protections. The decision was dated 19 December 2023.
Loftus worked on film and television productions from 2014, with breaks between projects. The WRC found Metropolitan Films International Limited was his employer, although separate production subsidiaries issued contracts. It concluded he was laid off in November 2018 and that his employment ended on 1 December 2019, when he was not called back for new work.
The WRC found a continuing need for Loftus’s stagehand work and no legitimate reason for employing him on successive specified purpose contracts. It also found the company failed to provide written reasons for those contracts. A specified purpose contract ends when its stated task is complete; the WRC found that project-based work did not justify the repeated contracts in this case.
The complaint had a mixed outcome: claims under sections 7 and 8 of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 succeeded, while the section 9(2) claim for a contract of indefinite duration was not well founded. The €5,000 compensation was for the breaches of sections 7 and 8.