Labour Court declines union claim over graduate engineer jobs

The Labour Court did not recommend conceding the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (Local Authority Professional Officers Branch)’s claim to retain graduate engineer jobs at Dublin City Council. The recommendation was signed on 21 January 2010. The dispute followed the Council’s decision not to renew temporary contracts amid the public-sector moratorium. It extended them for six months before reviewing the position. The union sought continued employment and asked the Council to seek a derogation from the department. Dublin City Council said non-renewal followed government instructions and the LANPAG agreement on staff-cost savings, and that other temporary contracts had also not been renewed. The Court said the agreement allowed fixed-term contracts not to be renewed and found no justifiable basis to treat the graduate engineers differently from other local-authority fixed-term employees.