The Labour Court awarded Ms Michelle O'Reilly €7,500 after finding that Nui Maynooth breached protections for fixed-term workers. In a decision dated 13 July 2012, the Court varied the Rights Commissioner's decision after both sides appealed.
O'Reilly worked for the University as an Instrument Teacher/Occasional Performance Tutor under successive fixed-term contracts. The Court found she was an employee, pointing to the University's control over her teaching and work arrangements. It found classical flute tuition met a consistent, permanent need and that she became entitled to a contract of indefinite duration from October 2005.
The Court also found her employment conditions were substantially less favourable than those of a comparable permanent employee, who was paid for 52 weeks and had sick pay and pension benefits. It found the University failed to provide written grounds for renewing her contract in October 2008. Earlier section 8(2) complaints were outside the time limit. The €7,500 compensation covered the combined breaches of sections 6, 8(2) and 9(1) of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003.