THE CROKE Park agreement – in which the Government and trade unions agreed industrial peace in return for no redundancies in the public sector – does not create enforceable legal rights for an individual public sector employee, a High Court judge has ruled.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan was giving his judgment on an injunction application by David Holland to restrain Athlone Institute of Technology, pending the outcome of full legal proceedings, making him redundant as a lecturer in bricklaying.
The institute had told the court it decided to discontinue bricklaying courses because demand had completely dried up. Mr Justice Hogan found yesterday that Mr Holland was entitled to an injunction on the “narrow” ground of having established a Department of Education circular of 2007 afforded him a legitimate expectation concerning his employment.
That circular stated lecturers who hold a contract of indefinite duration should enjoy permanency in their employment status akin to that of academics with full tenure, the judge said. The Labour Court had decided Mr Holland held such a contract, he noted.
However, he rejected arguments by Mr Holland’s lawyers the Croke Park agreement also created legitimate expectation nobody in the public service would be subject to redundancy. The language in paragraph 1.6 – guaranteeing no redundancies and providing for redeployment in the public service – was “too imprecise, conditional and aspirational” to permit such an interpretation.