The Workplace Relations Commission has ordered Design & Crafts Council Ireland to re-engage Marie Wilgaard Kelly after finding she was unfairly dismissed. The order sets a rate of €25.50 an hour for 17 hours a week and treats her contract as continuous since 2015.
The decision was dated 24 August 2022. Kelly had provided workshop technician and training services under successive contractor agreements. She argued that she worked fixed hours under supervision; the Council said she was an independent contractor who could provide a substitute and take other work. The adjudicator found an ongoing mutual obligation between them and that Kelly was an employee.
The adjudicator found the Council used successive contractor agreements to evade employer obligations and had not consulted Kelly or considered alternatives before ending her contract. Her separate part-time work complaint was found not well founded because she had not identified a full-time comparator. The Council was also ordered to provide her with a written statement of statutory terms within one month.