SIPTU Workers Rights Centre has won a €15,000 award at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for a union member employed at University College Dublin (UCD) after she was denied her entitlements under the Fixed Term Workers Act.
Dorota Bruce, a SIPTU member, was employed as an External Relations Officer in the Applied Language Centre in UCD and sought a Contract of Indefinite Duration (CID) under the Act as she had over four years of unbroken service and three successive contracts. With the support of her SIPTU representative, Bruce followed the internal grievance procedure to have her entitlement to a CID recognised.
However, UCD management disputed her claim, and after her contract was not renewed, SIPTU referred her case to the WRC.
The WRC adjudicator found that the contract Bruce received from UCD in October 2017 was, in law, a CID and that the university had breached the Act in applying a fixed term.
Thanking SIPTU for their support, Dorota Bruce called the WRC decision “a great validation”.
Welcoming the decision, SIPTU advocate Shonagh Byrne said: “It highlights the importance of workers in the education sector being members of the union to ensure their legal rights and entitlements are protected.”
