35 WELB cases went to tribunal

THIRTY-FIVE cases were taken to tribunal by Western Education and Library Board (WELB) staff over the past five years and one case went to court, the Education Minister John O’Dowd has revealed.

The Minister did not provide details of the cases but explained they could have related to a range of matters, for example, unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, sex discrimination, deduction from wages, equal pay, less favourable treatment as an agency worker, than a directly recruited employee or age discrimination.

He said the nature of the case usually detemined whether the case was heard before an Industrial or Fair Employment tribunal or in court.

“Normally, there is not a rationale for choosing one court over the other, since in the vast majority of employment cases the cause of action will determine whether it is the Industrial Tribunal and Fair Employment Tribunal that has jurisdiction to hear the complaint or the civil court,” he explained.

“This is determined by legislation and is normally not in the gift of the complainant. In the very limited cases where there is a choice, e.g. breach of contract case the different court costs are likely to be an influencing factor,” he stated.

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