The Workplace Relations Commission found Robbie Collins’s complaint that his employment transferred to CLG Na Fianna was not well founded. Adjudication Officer Brian Dalton dated the decision 27 January 2022.
Collins had been both a director and an employee of SGM, which managed sports grounds at Dardistown for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He argued the club took over the same business and that his employment terms should transfer with it. CLG Na Fianna said its arrangement with the College was a lease: the club paid rent, maintained the grounds for its members and controlled their use.
The WRC found the lease created a landlord-tenant relationship, unlike SGM’s service agreement with the College. No assets or staff transferred, there was no substantial transfer of customers, and the club primarily used and controlled the grounds for its members. The economic activity did not retain its identity, so Collins’s employment contract did not transfer to CLG Na Fianna.