Unfair treatment at work.

A work colleague of mine returned to work after 6 months fighting cancer.

After she returned we were all given full time contracts except for herself, she was offered a years contract. We all started together 4 years ago and she has had no sick leave before her illness. She had appealled through the union and has lost her appeal. The companies take on this is that legally all they had to do was keep her job open. She has lost other incentives because she has lost her seniority. She is devastated over the way they have treated her, surely this cannot be right. Does she have any rights? Surely this is a form of discrimination.

she should ask a solicitor.
The unions in such companies are usually there at the request of the company (the companyies often make it a requirement of employment to be in particular union) so it is questionable if they have her best intrests at heart.
It seems lousy treatment anyhow. I hope she beats them or has the intrest to do so.

If a company makes union membership a requirement, it is usually because the union has negotiated with the employer. It's not that employers particularly want a union on board.

I'm shocked at the treatment of this person and based on what you've said Gailey, it appears she'd have a good case.

Perhaps you should have opened this thread in works/careers...forum instead. You'd probably get more feedback. Maybe you could ask the moderator to move it for you?

Originally posted in Miscellaneous Non-financial Questions before being moved.

gailey said:

A work colleague of mine returned to work after 6 months fighting cancer.........

Surely this is a form of discrimination.

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Unfortunately it may not be. There are 9 specific situations where discrimation can be said to exist in statutory terms and the only one that might apply would be 'disability'. It your colleague has been certified as being free from her particular condition (and we sincerely hope that that is the case long-term) it might be difficult to claim discrimination on the grounds of disability.

I'd suggest a chat with the Dept of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Telephone: +353 1 631 2121
LoCall: 1890 220 222

gailey said:

After she returned we were all given full time contracts except for herself, she was offered a years contract.

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Do you mean that she and the others are self employed contract workers or that the others are full time employees and she is on contract?

We all started together 4 years ago and she has had no sick leave before her illness.

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Again perhaps you can clarify the exact nature of the employment (e.g. self employed or agency contractor or full time employee on probation etc.) now and over the initial 4 years?

A lot of employers start people off on a 9 -12 month contract with a view to permanency.

Yes - but 4 years of probation seems a long time. I'm just curious as to the nature of the employment of the people in question, and in particular the woman at the centre of the issue mentioned. Especially since "contracts" were mentioned.

Thanks for replies and for moving post. We started working for this company 4 yrs ago. We work part time (21.25 hours per week ) evening shift. We started on one years contract, then two years and we spent the last year fighting to be made permanent.ie union fighting on our behalf.

I would rather not say the nature of our work but I will say it is semi state. She is not the only one treated like this. 10 employees appealed the decision not to make them permanent and all 10 lost their appeal. There were on average 400 employees whol started together 4 yrs ago when the company opened. When they made the decision to make employees permanent, they decided to appoint only those who missed less than 10 days in the previous year regardless of circumstances. This also meant that anyone who just joined the company one year previously were made permanent, which meant some people lost their seniority. Hope this isn't too confusing. Anyway I found the replies very helpful and I will pass the info onto her. I know she would like to take it further but is worried she would have no case.

Because of the contractual arrangements it might be difficult to fight. However it could technically be seen as discimination as other people were treated differently.

Note that FF/PD's representatives in the EU parliment have fought tooth and nail to allow companies to treat temporary employees like this and have blocked (with the UK) an EU directive to force employers to make staff who are there for 2 years permanent.

Something you might want to consider before you put an X in the box beside your FF/PD candidate at the next election, or to ask them next time they knock on your door.

I thought the fixed term workers' directive which became law in Ireland in 2003 would protect her.

lff12 said:

Because of the contractual arrangements it might be difficult to fight. However it could technically be seen as discimination as other people were treated differently.

Note that FF/PD's representatives in the EU parliment have fought tooth and nail to allow companies to treat temporary employees like this and have blocked (with the UK) an EU directive to force employers to make staff who are there for 2 years permanent.

Something you might want to consider before you put an X in the box beside your FF/PD candidate at the next election, or to ask them next time they knock on your door.

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I wasn't aware of this. Any chance you might open a debate on Letting Off Steam so that I can get a glimpse into what's going on??