TED2513

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00047220 (CA-00058144-001)

BACKGROUND:

The Worker appealed the Decision of the Adjudication Officer in accordance with Section 8(1) of the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts, 1994 to 2012.  Labour Court hearings took place on the 8 November 2024, 29 January 2025 and 4 June 2025. 

The following is the Decision of the Court:-

DETERMINATION:

This is an appeal by Bernadette Baker of a decision of an Adjudicator Officer (ADJ-00047220 dated 19 December 2023) regarding a complaint made under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 (“the Act”) against her former employer, the Health Service Executive.

The Adjudication Officer found that the complaint was not well founded.

A Notice of Appeal was received by the Court on 20 December 2023.  This appeal is linked to EDA2552 and PWD2522 which were heard on the same day.

In this Determination the parties are referred to as they were at first instance. Hence, Bernadette Baker is referred to “the Complainant” and the Health Services Executive is referred to as “the Respondent”.

Summary Position of the Complainant

The Complainant commenced employment with a hospital group in June 2021 where she was employed in the vaccination programme on a 39-hour working week.

The Complainant submits that she was not notified in writing of changes to her terms and conditions of employment when her hours of work were changed. 

Furthermore, she was not provided with details of her annual leave entitlement, sick leave entitlements or her rate of pay.

Summary Position of the Respondent

The Complainant was issued with a number of temporary contracts of employment.

The Complainant was issued with a specified purpose contract of employment by Saolta University Health Care Group (which commenced on 2 June 2021) setting out her terms and conditions of employment, including her remuneration and annual leave entitlement. She was provided with access to the HSE Employee Handbook.

Arising from changes to the governance of the Covid vaccination programme, the Complainant was notified in writing on 16 March 2022 that her existing employment contract would transfer to the respective Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) and that her terms and conditions of employment would remain unchanged.

The Complainant was subsequently notified in writing of a change to her weekly hours of work from 1 October 2022, following a reduction in the demand for the covid vaccination service.  The Complainant’s contract of employment allowed for such a reduction in hours.

Following the conclusion of the Complainant’s specified purpose contract, she signed three additional “Change to Employee Terms and Conditions HR102” forms which stipulated the type of contract, hours of work and all associated terms and conditions of employment. The Complainant confirmed in writing that she received each notification.

The employee handbook, terms and conditions of employment, site safety and risk assessments, as well as all local and national procedures were available to all staff in hard copy.

Relevant law

Notification of changes

5.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), whenever a change is made or occurs in any of the particulars of the statement furnished by an employer under section 3, 4 or 6, the employer shall notify the employee in writing of the nature and date of the change as soon as may be thereafter, but not later than—

(a) the day on which the change takes effect, or

(b) where the change is consequent on the employee being required to work outside the State for a period of more than 1 month, the time of the employee’s departure.

Discussion and conclusions.

The Complainant submits that she was not notified in writing about changes to her terms of employment, as is required under the Act. The Respondent refutes that any contravention of the Act occurred.

The Act at section 5 provides protections to employees insofar as an employer is obliged to notify an employee in writing of the nature and date of any changes to that employee’s terms of employment.

In this case, the Complainant accepts that she was notified in writing of changes made to her terms of employment. The Complainant also accepts that she signed documentation confirming receipt of each notification.

In those circumstances, the Court concludes that the within complaint and appeal cannot succeed.

Decision

The Court decides that the complaint is not well founded.

The appeal fails and the decision of the Adjudication Officer is affirmed.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Katie Connolly
CC	______________________
1 July 2025	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to Ms Ceola Cronin, Court Secretary.