The Labour Court upheld Steven Kinsella and Luke Bradley’s appeal against a finding that their complaints were not well founded, ruling that two fixed-term fitters were entitled to the same minimum redundancy terms as comparable permanent staff at Sunday World Newspapers Ltd.
The determination was signed on 18 July 2006. The Court directed the company to pay each fitter the difference between one year’s gross basic salary and the amounts already received. If the parties could not agree the sums, the Court said it would hear them and make a further order.
The fitters had signed a waiver when they received the company’s redundancy package after its Terenure printing works closed. The Court found they had not seen the document in advance, had no independent advice or time to consider it, and the waiver did not expressly refer to the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003. It therefore did not settle their claims under that Act.
The Court also found the severance payments counted as remuneration and rejected the company’s argument that the fitters’ approaching contract expiry justified paying them less than permanent employees. The case listing spells Kinsella’s first name “Steven”; the determination opening spells it “Stephen”.