The Labour Court ordered the Health Service Executive to reinstate Dr Mary Doherty to her consultant post, after finding her fixed-term work complaint well-founded. The determination was dated 23 April 2014, and reinstatement was to take effect from 1 June 2013.
Doherty appealed a Rights Commissioner decision that had found against her. She said successive fixed-term contracts entitled her to a contract of indefinite duration. The HSE argued that temporary contracts were justified while it sought approval and held an open competition to fill the post permanently.
The Court found that Doherty had worked under successive fixed-term contracts for more than four years. A contract dated 15 February 2013 covered a period that began on 1 April 2012, but was issued ten months later and gave no grounds for renewal or reference to filling the permanent post. The Court concluded that the offer had been accepted and had become a contract of indefinite duration by operation of law.