Ruling boost for part-time teachers

Part-time teachers were yesterday given a major boost with a High Court judgment that has major implications for their entitlements.

Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley upheld a Labour Court finding that Anne Boyle, a part-time teacher for 20 years in a preschool for Traveller children, was an employee of the education minister and not, as the minister argued, of her school’s management board.

The Labour Court had correctly ordered the minister to pay compensation to Ms Boyle under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time) Work Act 2001 over being treated less favourably than teachers doing comparable work, the judge held.