The Labour Court disallowed An Post’s appeal and upheld enhanced redundancy payments for Deirdre Wade and Finbarr Monaghan, in a determination signed on 21 September 2012. The Rights Commissioner had directed payments calculated at eight weeks’ reckonable pay for each year of service.
Wade and Monaghan worked on successive fixed-term contracts from October 2008 to September 2011, covering short-term absences. After a business reorganisation, their contracts were not renewed and they received statutory redundancy payments. They argued that comparable permanent employees received better terms under An Post’s voluntary severance scheme. It provided eight weeks’ pay per year of service, with a minimum of 20 weeks and a maximum of 40 weeks. The workers were represented by CPSU.
An Post argued that the scheme encouraged permanent employees to leave voluntarily, while the workers’ contracts were already due to end. The Court found that redundancy payments were remuneration under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 and that the workers had been treated less favourably than permanent comparators. It held that An Post’s justification depended on their fixed-term status and did not provide an objective ground for the difference in treatment.