The Labour Court set aside a €3,000 award against Trinity College Dublin on the College’s appeal, while ruling that Elaine Moriarty’s contract was of indefinite duration. The determination was signed on 14 February 2012.
Moriarty said her successive fixed-term contracts exceeded the four-year limit and that the College had not given written reasons for renewing them. The College argued that she held separate contracts for lecturing and research work, and that the research post was time-limited. It also said the complaints about missing written reasons were out of time.
The Court found the College combined the lecturing and research duties in one contract, effective from 1 October 2007. It found the renewal was not objectively justified and deemed the contract to be of indefinite duration from that date. The section 8 complaints were brought outside the time limit, so their merits were not decided; the Court set aside the Rights Commissioner’s €3,000 award. It made no further compensation determination because Moriarty had received comparable pay.