A Church of Ireland clergyman has been told he is not entitled to succeed in a claim against the church for unpaid wages because he is not an employee.
Rev David Frazer was told by the Employment Appeals Tribunal that his duties were "dictated not by contract, but by conscience".
Rev Frazer, the former rector of Clane, Co Kildare, had brought a claim against the church under the Payment of Wages Act arising from a decision of the Meath and Kildare diocesan court in 2003.
The court suspended him from his parish for six months and reduced his stipend by a quarter for that period, after he was found guilty of "conduct unbecoming to the sacred office of a clergyman".
He had faced six charges, arising from parish rows, which were brought against him by 14 parishioners.
A rights commissioner found in favour of Rev Frazer's claim that he was entitled to receive the portion of his stipend that had been withheld. In a decision just published, however, the tribunal upheld an appeal by the church against the rights commissioner's recommendation.
It said the nature of Rev Frazer's relationship with the church was that of "a vocation or calling", which could not be grounded in the common law notion of contract.
The appeal was lodged in the name of the Representative Church Body, Church of Ireland House, Rathmines, Dublin.
The tribunal found by majority decision that Rev Frazer was an office holder and not an employee.
"No contract of employment exists; the nature of the relationship cannot be analysed in contract terms because the tribunal does not accept that there was an intention to create legal relations," it said.
Rev Frazer's duties were defined "and his activities dictated not by contract but by conscience", it said.
"Accordingly the appeal succeeds and the decision of the rights commissioner under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, is set aside."