The Labour Court has already been forced to refer 91 cases involving the act, which is designed to protect workers on temporary contracts, to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in recent months on points of law raised by lawyers acting for the department, which administers the service.

The department had wanted the points of law to be decided in the High Court but the trade union involved requested that they be decided in Europe.

The department has also refused to rule out appealing three other ongoing Labour Court cases, involving a total of 96 civil servants, to Europe if necessary, stating that it would act on legal advice provided by the Office of the Attorney General in such situations.

Another case, involving six employees at the passport office, was recently appealed to the High Court by the department after the Labour Court found in their favour.

The department has also taken the unusual step of employing senior counsel in some Labour Court cases.

The cases involve civil servants who have been employed for a number of years on a succession of temporary contracts.

Two trade unions, Impact and the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU), are bringing cases under the act seeking permanent contracts, access to promotion and the same rates of pay as permanent staff for them.

According to the CPSU's industrial relations officer, Theresa Dwyer, the union believed that some departments were exploiting civil servants on temporary contracts.

She said the best example of this was the passport office case, where the officials involved were given contracts which started in January 2004 and terminated just before Christmas that year.

They were then taken on again the following January 2005 and retained until the following December.

"They were let go for two weeks over the Christmas period each year and we think that was designed to break their service so they didn't receive certain entitlements, " said Dwyer.

Impact's national secretary Louise O'Donnell also said that many of workers involved were not really temporary staff. "You have a situation in the service where people are on temporary contracts for 9, 10, 11 years and they are still being brought in on yearly contracts because some departments claim they are doing seasonal work, " said Impact's national secretary Louise O'Donnell.

O'Donnell said that, in some situations, the department claimed that the Labour Court had no jurisdiction to hear the claims brought by Impact's members.

"The department are not conceding this. They're determined to challenge the act, " she said. "Because of their position, they don't have to make judgment calls about funding and so no thought is given about the expense involved."

A spokesman for the department said that it did not have any policy of appealing every case it lost under the act. "Each case is considered on the facts, " he said.

He said that the department also believed that where it was established that a civil servant had not received their statutory entitlements, it would address this.

He added that the civil service, in general, used fixedterm contracts to fill vacancies arising from maternity leave, seasonal work demands, short-term projects and flexible working arrangements.