The Labour Court allowed the appeal by Pat Newell, Fiona Gillen and Kenneth Cunningham t/a Newell Quinn Gillen, setting aside the Rights Commissioner’s decision in claims brought by Sheila Power and Lorraine Kernot. The Rights Commissioner had awarded Power €15,000 and Kernot €13,000. The Labour Court determination was dated 9 October 2012.
Power and Kernot worked part time as legal secretaries for the Waterford solicitors’ firm. The firm said it asked them to adjust their hours to cover office opening hours and that they requested redundancy. The women said they were told their positions would be combined into one full-time role, with reduced combined hours, and that they would be made redundant if they did not agree.
The Court found that the women asked for redundancy rather than changing their attendance hours. It could not find that they were selected for redundancy because they worked part time, and found they had not been asked to convert to full-time work. Both claims under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 could not succeed, and the Rights Commissioner’s decision was set aside.