Labour Court rejects engineer’s fixed-term work appeal against Meath County Council

The Labour Court rejected civil engineer Adrian Sherry’s appeal against Meath County Council, finding that his four-year fixed-term contract did not become a contract of indefinite duration. It affirmed the Rights Commissioner’s decision in a determination dated 9 July 2013. Sherry argued that successive contracts with local authorities on National Roads Authority projects counted as continuous employment with associated employers. The Court found that he had voluntarily resigned from Monaghan County Council before joining Meath, breaking continuity of service. It also found that the Authority’s direction of some local-authority activities did not amount to control of the councils themselves, so the authorities were not associated employers under the Act.