The Labour Court dismissed Galway County Council’s appeal and ordered it to reinstate engineer Peter Gavin on a contract of indefinite duration. The Court set the contract’s effective date at 8 May 2006 and signed its determination on 14 October 2011.
Gavin worked for the council from 18 April 2005 to 7 May 2009 on fixed-term contracts. The council accepted he had more than four years’ service but argued that he was covering for another engineer, which justified extending his fixed-term employment. Gavin disputed that there were objective grounds for keeping him on a fixed-term contract beyond the statutory period.
The Court found that the contract made on 8 May 2006 extended his fixed-term employment beyond four years and contained no objective grounds for doing so. A later agreement describing the work as temporary cover could not change the contract’s status. It therefore became a contract of indefinite duration from 8 May 2006. The Court affirmed the Rights Commissioner’s decision with that changed effective date and ordered Gavin’s reinstatement in his former post on those terms.