THE FORMER head of the religion department at the Islamic Centre’s school in Dublin should be paid an extra €30,000 as part of an enhanced redundancy package the Labour Court has recommended.
The teacher, who had worked at the centre since 1997, had been backed by funding from the Maktoum Foundation, the charity of the wealthy rulers of Dubai.
In March 2007, the teacher was told by the centre that he was to be made redundant as the Maktoum Foundation were no longer funding his position. He was offered statutory redundancy and the centre also told him that the school wished to retain his services and employ him directly on the same terms and conditions which he had previously enjoyed.
At a meeting between the centre and Siptu a number of options were offered to the teacher but he rejected them.
Siptu told the court the teacher was “adamant that he must retain his status as head of religion department and teach in the Muslim National School but as an employee of the Maktoum Foundation”.
He rejected being made redundant on the grounds that this was not a real redundancy situation.
A part-time teacher, initially on a temporary basis while he considered the offer, is now employed on a permanent basis to replace him. The centre said he is entitled to be paid his statutory redundancy.
The row went before a rights commissioner, who said in a recommendation in March that he was “acutely aware” that the teacher “finds himself in a most invidious and difficult personal position.
“I do not wish to exacerbate that position in any way,” the commissioner said, adding that he could not declare other than that the centre was within its rights “to pursue the cessation of the employment relationship based on the wishes of the Maktoum Foundation, which is its source of funding.”