The Employment Appeals Tribunal has ruled that a woman employed by the Big Issues magazine through a Community Employment (CE) scheme is entitled to a redundancy payment. The judgment could have implications for other organisations which have employed people on CE schemes.
There have been more than 40,000 CE placements a year, mainly long-term unemployed people, for most of the past decade.
Ms Carolynn Bartlett was employed from October 1995 until September 1998 by the Big Issues as a journalist, although she also had administrative and other duties. She was paid £107.70 a week for her 19.5 hours a week on the CE scheme, and £92.30 for extra hours, bringing her pay to £200 a week.
When Ms Bartlett was let go, along with other staff at the magazine because of the withdrawal of Government funding in September 1998, she went to the National Union of Journalists to seek redundancy. The NUJ took the case on the basis that Ms Bartlett was in continuous employment with the Big Issues for three years, although CE workers are not normally covered by the redundancy payments acts.
Yesterday the NUJ's Irish national organiser, Mr Seamus Dooley, said that the EAT award vindicated the union's stance. He had hoped all along that Ms Bartlett would receive a redundancy payment based on the £92.30 a week she earned on top of her wages as a CE scheme participant.
He welcomed the tribunal's decision to make the award on the basis of her total earnings. "This ruling establishes an important principle and recognises that hours worked under a CE scheme form part of continuous service," he said.
The amount awarded to Ms Bartlett will be approximately £360. There was no comment from the Big Issues management yesterday.