Introduction and Background to Reviews

The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003 continues to be a busy source of work for the Labour Court, with close to 25 appeals having been heard by the Court in 2013 up to the end of September. This legislation has perhaps become best known for the limit it places on an employer’s use of successive fixed-term contracts.

Thus, according to Section 9 of the Act, an employer may not in principle employ a fixed-term employee under a series of two or more fixed-term contracts for longer than a period of four years, unless that employer can show that there is an ‘objective justification’ for doing so. If this rule is breached, the employee