Sacked doctor gets €100k package plus job back

A SENIOR medical officer, who was unlawfully sacked by the HSE because of the Government’s moratorium on recruitment, is to be re-engaged and given a back pay and pension package of about €100,000.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane yesterday upheld an Employment Appeals Tribunal award to Dr Molly Sengupta, Allendale Lawn, Clonsilla, Dublin, who had worked as a paediatrician with the HSE in the North West Dublin region.

Marguerite Bolger SC, for Dr Sengupta, told the Circuit Civil Court that the doctor had been employed in March 2007 on a temporary contract to fill a vacant post pending the permanent filling of the position.

In December 2007, the Government had introduced a moratorium on recruitment to the public service and directed that vacant positions be filled only through the reallocation or reorganisation of work or staff.

Ms Bolger said that when a permanent senior medical officer returned two years early from training leave, the HSE had made a decision to dismiss Dr Sengupta to avoid any increase in the head count of employees in breach of the moratorium.

She told the court the HSE, having opposed Dr Sengupta’s successful claim for unfair dismissal at the Employment Appeals Tribunal, now conceded she had been unfairly dismissed, but was appealing the direction to re-engage her.

Area manager Anne O’Connor told the court she had no option but to dismiss Dr Sengupta. The number of employees in the HSE was decreasing each year and 2,500 were targeted to go next year.

Judge Linnane said she agreed with the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision to direct Dr Sengupta’s re-engagement with full salary and pension rights dating back to September 2010.

The judge, awarding costs against the HSE, said re-engagement was the appropriate form of redress, as Dr Sengupta was considered by both sides to be an exemplary employee and there had been no breakdown in trust and confidence.