The Labour Court found Richard Moran was unfairly dismissed by Limerick City & County Council (Limerick City Council) and ordered the council to pay him €5,000 compensation. The determination, signed on 11 January 2018, overturned the Adjudication Officer’s decision that his complaint was not well founded.
Moran’s one-year fixed-term contract expired in November 2015. The council argued his dismissal resulted only from the contract’s expiry, but accepted he would have been retained, like comparable colleagues, if he had not been involved in a performance review. The Court found the fixed-term exclusion did not apply.
The Court also found the council failed to follow its written performance procedure, which set out stages including warnings, and concluded the dismissal was unfair. Moran found another job within eight weeks, but the Court had no evidence of his efforts to reduce his losses during that period.