The Labour Court awarded Mr Leonard Dorrian €7,500 after finding Nui Maynooth breached three provisions of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003. In a determination dated 13 July 2012, it varied the Rights Commissioner’s decision following appeals by both sides.
The Court found that Mr Dorrian was an employee covered by the Act, citing the University’s control over aspects of his teaching and timetable and the integration of his work into its music curriculum. It concluded that piano tuition met a continuing need, making successive fixed-term contracts unnecessary and inappropriate, and that he became entitled to a contract of indefinite duration from October 2005.
It also found his conditions substantially less favourable than those of a comparable permanent employee, and that the University had failed to give written reasons when renewing his contract in October 2008. The €7,500 compensation covered the combined breaches. The Rights Commissioner had awarded €2,500 each for the section 9 and section 8(2) complaints, while finding the section 6 complaint not well founded.