A Kilkenny veterinary surgeon, Mr Louis Reardon, employed by the Department of Agriculture to test cattle exclusively for TB and brucellosis, has lost his action against the State for holiday pay.
The action was taken as a test case and, had it been successful, would have cost the Department more than £250,000 in retrospective holiday pay to the 25 vets it employs in its disease eradication scheme.
Judge Liam Devally, in the Circuit Civil Court, said that to come within the terms of the Holidays Employees Act 1973 Mr Reardon had to prove he was employed by the State on subordinate duties in an unestablished capacity in the Civil Service.
He said Mr Reardon had been in whole-time temporary employment as a veterinary inspector whose duties were limited to testing cattle and signing of certificates.
He had claimed his work was humdrum, repetitious, menial and subordinate and liable to checking by a permanent veterinary inspector. While his income varied with the number of tests, his nett income last year had been £14,000 higher than that of the established post of veterinary inspector in the Department.
"There is nothing of a menial or subordinate nature in his work and I find he is not entitled to the relief sought," Judge Devally said.