European Court rules in favour of Irish workers

The European Court of Justice has today ruled in favour of 90 civil servants who claimed workers on fixed-term contracts should be entitled to the same pension and sick leave rights as full-time employees.

The judgement also confirmed that employees on fixed-term contracts have their right to enjoy the same entitlements as permanent staff to sick leave, training, access to promotion and other conditions of employment.

The decision means that the State may have to pay up to €220,000 in compensation as well as back pay to the civil servants who took the case.

The compensation was originally awarded by an Irish Rights Commissioner, Janet Hughes in February 2005 who ruled a number of government departments had illegally discriminated against the civil servants – some of whom had been on fixed-term contracts for as long as ten years.

However, the Government appealed the Commissioner's decision to the Labour Court, which in turn, referred various legal aspects to the European Court of Justice. The case will now return to the Labour Court for a final ruling, unless the State drops its appeal.

The European Court of Justice also ruled today that Irish public servants could take cases directly under EU directives if, as in this case, the Government had failed to put them into Irish law within the correct time limits. The EU Directive on Fixed-term Work was implemented in 2001 as the Protection of Employees (Fixed Time Workers) Act, two years after it was originally due to come into law.

The Protection of Employees (Fixed Time Workers) Act makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against fixed-term staff unless there are 'objective grounds' for variations in pay and conditions

Impact, which took the case on behalf of the civil servants called on the Department of Finance to drop its appeal against the Rights Commissioners ruling.

"These workers have now waited over three years for justice. Some were threatened with the sack by government departments that were trying to avoid their legal responsibilities. All were denied benefits that permanent colleagues enjoyed including pay increases, contributory pensions and access to sick pay, training and annual leave. They now  deserve a speedy end to this injustice," said national secretary Louise O'Donnell.