The Workplace Relations Commission found Cara Kennedy’s pay complaint against the Department Of Education not well founded, with no monetary award, in a decision dated 30 July 2026. Kennedy challenged the refusal to recognise four years of overseas teaching for incremental salary credit, saying it affected her current earnings and future pension entitlement.
The complaint was heard on 26 February 2026 by adjudication officer Úna Glazier-Farmer. Kennedy said her licensed teaching in the United States and English-language teaching in China should count under Circular 0029/2007. The Department said overseas service had to be equivalent to approved Irish teaching service and interpreted that as requiring a recognised teaching qualification during the period. It credited her US teaching from September 2022 to August 2023, but refused credit for earlier US service and her China teaching.
The officer said the circular gave the Department discretion over incremental credit, which was not a contractual entitlement or wages properly payable under the Payment of Wages Act. She found Kennedy had received the salary for the scale point set by the Department and that no unlawful deduction had occurred.