The Labour Court upheld a Rights Commissioner’s decision that Dr Rachel Moss could not bring a claim under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 because she was no longer a fixed-term employee. The determination was signed on 12 March 2012; the merits of her redundancy were not decided.
Moss appealed, arguing that a funding condition in her 2006 contract made it invalid and that Trinity College Dublin’s redundancy notice effectively placed her back on a fixed-term contract. The College said her indefinite-duration status had been recognised in 2006 and that her post ended when funding ran out.
The Court found that Moss’s 2006 contract was for indefinite duration, had no expiry date and did not make its end foreseeable when she signed it. It also found the 2011 redundancy notice did not turn the contract into a fixed-term one. Moss ceased to be a fixed-term employee on 30 September 2006, before the period relevant to her claim, and had indefinite-duration status from 1 October 2006. The Court upheld the decision that she lacked standing to pursue the statutory claim, but made no finding on the redundancy itself.