A 72-year old civilian Garda driver who was forced to retire at the age of 70 has lost out in his bid to stay in his job.
This follows the Labour Court overturning a ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last October that Tom Ronan be reengaged as a driver and that his employment be extended by a further three years.
WRC Adjudicator, Brian Dalton found that in Mr Ronan’s case against An Garda Síochána, Mr Ronan was discriminated against on the grounds of age and took into account the “undue harsh financial consequences” the mandatory retirement had on Mr Ronan when he turned 70 in March 2023.
In the aftermath of the WRC ruling, Mr Ronan went to the High Court in a bid to require that he be re-engaged in compliance with the WRC ruling.
Arising from his personal circumstances and a modest pension income, Mr Ronan told the WRC that he must work.
However, An Garda Síochána appealed the WRC ruling to the Labour Court and now on behalf of the Labour Court, deputy chairman, Alan Haugh has ruled that the appeal succeeds and the WRC ruling is set aside.
In the Labour Court ruling, Mr Haugh found a State decision to apply a mandatory retirement age of 70 to the majority of its public servants was given effect by the Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Act 2018.
Mr Haugh stated that the Supreme Court has upheld the State’s policy of a mandatory retirement age of 70 as being entirely consistent with the jurisprudence of the CJEU (The Court of Justice of the European Union).
Mr Haugh said that the Labour Court, it goes without saying, is bound by the judgment of the Supreme Court.
He said that being the case, the Court finds that Mr Ronan’s complaint that An Garda Síochána discriminated against him by compelling him to retire on reaching the age of 70 is not well-founded.
Mr Haugh said that furthermore, the Court finds that Mr Ronan’s attempt to compare his circumstances to those that apply to the cohort of public servants recruited between 2004 and 2012, including a number of colleague Civilian Drivers, and who do not have a mandatory retirement age to be inappropriate.
Mr Haugh said that “it is a matter of public record that the State decided against retrospectively applying a mandatory retirement age to this cohort of public servants when enacting the 2018 Act as to have done so could have given rise to a perception of unfairness and may have been inconsistent with those workers’ legitimate expectations”.
Mr Ronan joined the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in 2000 as a Civilian Driver in An Garda Síochána and his employment was transferred to AGS in 2006.
Mr Ronan told the court that he underwent a medical assessment in February 2023 and received a five-year extension to his driving licence thereafter and was declared fit to perform the full range of duties.
Assistant Principal at the Department of Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform, Ms Eavan Doyle told the Labour Court that there is no discretion within the statutory framework to permit a civil or public servant who is subject to the mandatory retirement age of 70 to work beyond that age.
Principal Officer with responsibility for Human Resources and Pensions at AGS, Brian Sheehan said that the mandatory retirement age was raised to 70 was made in consideration of a number of issues.
These included inter-generational fairness, ensuring a mixture of ages and experience within the public service, budgets and workforce planning and the desirability of mitigating against issues of personal and professional dignity for older workers.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
