The Labour Court ordered the HSE to re-engage Dr Abdel Raouf Sallam on a contract of indefinite duration after finding his fixed-term employment had become indefinite. The determination was signed on 17 January 2013, on Dr Sallam’s appeal from a Rights Commissioner decision against him.
Dr Sallam worked as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist for the HSE and its predecessor on fixed-term contracts from 2003 to 2011. He argued that the contracts were successive and that, after the doctor he was covering retired, he continued in a changed role without objective grounds for another fixed-term arrangement. The HSE disputed continuity across some contract gaps and said his Sligo post was covered by one fixed-purpose contract.
The Court found the gaps did not break the succession of his employment. It also found that the Sligo contract was to provide cover for a named doctor and that, after the doctor retired, Dr Sallam continued working under an implied contract without being told objective grounds for keeping him on a fixed term. The Court found he would not have been dismissed in August 2011 had his status been recognised.
The Court ordered his re-engagement on a contract of indefinite duration and left the effective date and compensation for financial loss to negotiation between the parties.