THE DUBLIN and Shannon Airport Authority has been directed by the Labour Court to reinstate two men who were made compulsorily redundant when they were working on contracts for the company.
Brendan Keehan and Peter Flannery were employed at Shannon airport from May 2003 until June 2007, when their employment terminated.
Initially both men worked as catering assistants in the in-flight catering services department on a succession of fixed-term contracts.
They were then appointed to positions in the airport's seasonal reserve unit on time-specific, fixed-term contracts up to February 2006, when their contracts were extended on a month-to-month basis.
The court said that it was relevant to the case that the company was involved in trade union negotiations on a major staff restructuring programme at Shannon.
Agreement on restructuring in March 2007 involved a voluntary redundancy programme intended to reduce the workforce at the airport by about 200.
While the redundancy deal "was expressed to be voluntary", the court said Mr Keehan and Mr Flannery had their employment "compulsorily terminated" last June. They were offered the monetary terms of the voluntary redundancy package but refused the offer claiming that they should be given the option to remain in their jobs.
They argued that the successive renewal of their fixed-term contracts meant they had become entitled to a "contract of indefinite duration" under the 2003 Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act.
They took their case to a rights commissioner last year, who ruled against them on the basis that the extension of their contract from month to month amounted to a single fixed-term contract which would expire on the implementation of the restructuring proposals.
After considering an appeal by Siptu on behalf of the two men, court chairman Kevin Duffy found in their favour.
In a finding that has just become available, Mr Duffy set aside the commissioner's decision and substituted it with a finding that the men's complaints alleging a breach of the Act were well founded. He said it seemed "perfectly clear" that the only reason why the men were made compulsorily redundant was because the company regarded them as employed on month-to-month contracts.
"They were thus regarded as fixed-term employees to whom the commitment against compulsory redundancy did not apply."
He directed that the company reinstate them on a contract of indefinite duration, in the positions which they previously held, with effect from June 30th, 2007.