The Labour Court rejected Bianca O’Neill’s appeal against the Office of Public Works on 20 December 2013, finding it had no jurisdiction to investigate her fixed-term work complaints. The merits were not decided.
O’Neill said the OPW was her employer and should have provided a contract of indefinite duration, equal terms with permanent staff and written reasons for renewing her contracts. She also alleged that making her redundant in July 2012 was penalisation for seeking that contract. The OPW argued that Hayes Higgins Partnership employed her.
The Court found that O’Neill’s earlier arrangement through Techstaff was an agency-worker arrangement. It found that her later contract with Hayes Higgins had no stated end date and was not fixed-term. The Hayes Higgins arrangement did not renew her Techstaff contract, so there were no successive contracts with the same employer.
The Court varied the Rights Commissioner’s decision and rejected O’Neill’s appeal. It concluded that she was not a fixed-term employee in the six months before her complaint and therefore lacked standing to bring the claims.