The Plaintiff, Mr Maurice Power, sought an application for relief by way of injunction pending the decision by the Workplace Relations Commission of a claim which was brought pursuant to S. 9 of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003. The Plaintiff has been employed by the Defendant organisation since October 2014 on a series of fixed-term contracts as interim Chief Executive Officer of the Saolta University Health Care Group. The Plaintiff argued that he was entitled to receive a contract of indefinite duration. It was the Plaintiff’s desire to be kept in post, and on salary, and to prevent the Defendant from appointing a replacement CEO until his claim had been finally determined by the WRC.
The Defendant submitted that one of the main issues with the Plaintiff’s claim was that the court did not have jurisdiction to make the orders sought by the Plaintiff and that those matters fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the statutory agencies invested by the legislation with the power to decide claims.
The Defendant also maintained that the Plaintiff understood and agreed that his appointments were on an interim basis. The Plaintiff also raised no issue as to his employment status until January 2019.
Allen J accepted that the High Court had no jurisdiction to decide the substance of the Plaintiff’s claim under S. 9 of the Act of 2003. The High Court had no jurisdiction to make interim or interlocutory orders in cases in which it has no jurisdiction to decide the substance of the dispute and has no inherent jurisdiction to supplement the statutory remedies made available by the Oireachtas to administrative tribunals for the enforcement of statutory rights.
The Court opined that to accede to such an application would be to put the Plaintiff in a better position than any of his colleagues whose right to a contract of indefinite duration was never in doubt. Therefore, the court refused the application.
https://www.courts.ie/view/judgments/b9ff5ffb-7758-4356-b7bc-c0622241a4ee/8770fe93-bed3-47dd-9fca-ec1e7ad1120e/2021_IEHC_346.pdf/pdf
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