Labour Court dismisses Amanda Kelly’s appeal over second fellowship

The Labour Court found Amanda Kelly’s penalisation complaint against Nui Galway (NUIG) was not well founded and disallowed her appeal. The determination was dated 19 May 2015. Kelly argued that the university’s refusal to consider her for a second University Fellowship prevented her fixed-term service from reaching four years. NUIG said the fellowship was a three-year training post and its policy did not allow a second fellowship. The Court held that the law did not extend penalisation protections to an employer’s refusal to let a fixed-term employee apply for another fixed-term post. It accepted that NUIG’s one-fellowship policy was generally applied and grounded in the posts’ training and development purpose.