Lecturers’ redundancy payments are trebled

TWO fixed-term lecturers are to have redundancy payments trebled after the Labour Court found they were discriminated against by the Department of Education when it closed a Dublin college last year.

The two are also to be paid compensation of €2,500 each for having been denied their right to equal treatment with their permanent colleagues at St Catherine’s College for Home Economics in Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Helen Maloney and Margaret Moran were employed on fixed-term contracts at the college, and had six and seven years of service respectively when the closure happened in August 2007. But they were only offered a redundancy lump sum equal to their statutory entitlement of two weeks’ pay for every year of service, compared to a number of redundancy options offered to permanent staff.