Go-ahead for female civil servants’ test cases

THE Government may end up paying out millions of euro in compensation to female civil servants who missed out on promotion after the Labour Court decided yesterday their discrimination cases could proceed.

Test cases on behalf of the 500 women, who claim they were overlooked for promotion as they were job sharers, will proceed after the court said the six-month time limit under equality legislation does not apply. The cases relate to eligibility for promotion and date back to before October 1997.

But success in these test cases would result in up to 500 former job sharers being credited with a full year’s service for promotional eligibility for each year they worked before 1997 and, thereby, open the door for compensation to be paid for loss of promotions. The basis for the claim comes from a European Court of Justice ruling, known as the Gerster case, which established a legal entitlement for workers to be credited with a full year’s service.