Former Cork VEC loses creche employment case

The former County Cork VEC has lost an employment case related to its controversial decision to open a creche which is the subject of a departmental probe.

County Cork VEC built a €1m creche alongside the Youthreach facility in Mallow after applying for unapproved lending from the local credit union to top up its funds. It also closed a similar facility in Fermoy and demanded workers relocate to Mallow. This led to a sit-in by Fermoy staff, with CCVEC ultimately reaching a settlement. However, the enhanced redundancy package was not offered to one member of staff who had been made redundant shortly beforehand. She took her case to the Labour Court.

In a recently published appeal, court chairman Kevin Duffy said CCVEC had no right to deny the worker a better package just because she was made redundant before the Fermoy creche closed down.