The Labour Court dismissed Patrick Neville’s appeals in three complaints against the HSE, affirming the Adjudication Officer’s decisions in a determination dated 9 February 2018. The complaints concerned unfair dismissal, agency-worker rights and whether the HSE’s recruitment of agency workers involved a transfer of undertakings.
Neville, Matrix Resources Limited’s managing director, argued he should have been included in the HSE’s recruitment process and transferred with the business. The HSE said he was not an agency worker assigned to it. The Court found Neville worked for Matrix, managing its employees, while the HSE directed the day-to-day work of the agency staff assigned to it.
The Court found that the HSE’s vacancy notices met its statutory duty to notify agency workers of available jobs and that no transfer of undertakings took place. It found the unfair-dismissal and agency-worker complaints were not well founded; the transfer complaint was misconceived. All three appeals were dismissed.