Maynooth professor loses Labour Court claim against university

Academic on €154,000 salary claimed he had no role or work, and secondment constituted a penalisation

A senior academic on a €154,000 salary who told the Labour Court that he has no role or work at Maynooth University has lost his penalisation action against the university.

At a Labour Court hearing into his case last year, Prof Robert Galavan claimed he has had no role or work at Maynooth University for the previous four and a half years as a result of being penalised under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 by the institution’s authorities for making a protected disclosure.

However, in a ruling published on Thursday after four days of evidence last year, the Labour Court dismissed Prof Galavan’s case after finding he did not make a protected disclosure.

Deputy chairman of the Labour Court Alan Haugh stated that having determined that Prof Galavan did not make a protected disclosure, it was not necessary for the court to dwell on Prof Galavan’s contention that his secondment to the university’s Kennedy Institute constituted a penalisation as a result of him making a protected disclosure.

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Prof Galavan told the court he had worked from home as no role had been identified for him since being directed by then-university president Prof Philip Nolan in August 2016 to move on secondment to the Kennedy Institute. He said he cannot apply for research grants because of his position and feels he is “drifting off into obscurity”.

Mr Haugh noted Prof Galavan claimed that his standing in the academic community “has been left in tatters as a result of this secondment and the reason for it has given rise to much speculation amongst colleagues”.

The deputy chairman said Prof Galavan believes that, as a consequence, he has been deprived of valuable networking and collaboration opportunities that can only be gained by attending conferences in his field, with the result that his scholarly output has dropped dramatically.

Mr Haugh said it is the court’s judgment that it was the findings of the university commissioned Conal Devine & Associates independent report, in relation to the state of affairs within the university’s school of business, that prompted Prof Nolan to exercise his statutory authority to second Prof Galavan from the school of business to the Kennedy Institute.

The Devine Report was carried out following what Mr Haugh described as “the very public deterioration in relations” between Prof Galavan and Prof Peter McNamara, his successor as head of the school of business.

In an email to Maynooth University’s director of human resources in June 2016, Prof Nolan confirmed his decision to second Prof Galavan to the Kennedy Institute after forming the view “without finding fault on either side, that the only effective means to resolve the dispute is to have the two parties work in separate parts of the university for a period of time”.

Upholding a 2020 ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in the case, Mr Haugh said that no causal link has been established between the fact that Prof Galavan vented his legitimate concerns about developments in the school of business during 2014 per se, and his secondment.

Mr Haugh said that it was the manner in which those concerns were raised that formed the basis for Prof Nolan’s concerns and led to his decision.

Mr Haugh stated that the Devine report found that Prof Galavan “knew or ought to have known that the impact of his actions in effectively questioning the rationale for the decision by the head of school, would have been potentially adverse to Prof McNamara and his standing in the school as professor and head of school”.

Under cross examination at the Labour Court, Prof Galavan accepted that he had not used the words “protected disclosure” to characterise his 2014 complaints until February 2017.

Chair in strategic management in Maynooth’s school of business, Prof Galavan was initially appointed as lecturer in Maynooth in 2007. He played a key role in founding the school of business. His five-year term as head of the school ended in 2012 and he took a one-year sabbatical. Prof McNamara was appointed as the new head of the school and became Prof Galavan’s line manager.

In May to October 2014 Prof Galavan raised his concerns about governance and health and safety with Prof McNamara.

Outlining the chronology of events, Mr Haugh stated that in November 2014 Prof McNamara raised a formal grievance against Prof Galavan that led to an investigation.

In March 2016 Conal Devine & Associates issued its report on issues raised by Prof McNamara; and in 2016 Prof Nolan informed Prof Galavan of the college’s decision to second him from the school of business to the Kennedy Institute.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times