Updates

The recent decision of the WRC provides useful insights and clarifications into the collective redundancy obligations for employers that arise under the Protection of Employment Act 1977 (“the 1977 Act”), which unions should be alert to when dealing with collective redundancy situations. Background The background to this case is well traversed when at the commencement […]

The Whistleblowing Directive sets new EU-wide minimum standards for protecting whistle-blowers and requires Member States to establish comprehensive whistleblower protection frameworks. We have set out below the current situation in Ireland, Germany and the UK (who of course are not imple- menting the Whistleblowing Directive). Ireland The original Irish Protected Disclosures Act 2014 was enacted […]

The lack of statutory paid sick leave quickly became a major health and safety issue during the pandemic, when evidence emerged that some employees continued to attend work with symptoms to avoid not being paid where no sick leave arrangements were in place. The Government was forced to address this issue as Ireland was one […]

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill was announced earlier this year. The Bill is intended to give effect to the EU Work Life Balance Directive 2019/1158 which was due to be transposed into Irish law by August 2022. The Government have recently announced plans to integrate the Right to Request Remote Working into […]

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill (the “Work Life Bill”) aims to increase participation of women in the labour market, as well as the up-take in family related leave. Work Life Balance v Right to Request Remote Working: The Work Life Bill is similar to the Right to Request Remote Working Bill (the […]

On 25 January 2022, the Government published the Right to Request Remote Work Bill 2021. The Bill provides employees with a statutory right to request a remote working arrangement. It further requires employers to have a Remote Working Policy in line with a proposed Code of Practice. Submitting a Request Employees are entitled to submit […]

The recent spate of tech layoffs have highlighted that we are facing uncertain times ahead. We may very well see knock-on effects of the tech slowdown in Ireland in other industries. When a firm is announcing redundancies, it cannot be a one size fits all. This article is an overview of some issues employers need […]

Since the Weinstein scandal broke in October 2017 and the advent of the #MeToo movement, there has been an ongoing discussion about sexual harassment. The increased awareness may have resulted in employers realising they needed to get ahead of what is a problem both inside and outside of work. It is evident that responses by […]

The UK Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd, the first employee competition case to reach the UK’s Supreme Court in over a century. While this looks like a decision which is favourable to employers with loosely drawn restrictive covenants, employers need to continue to be careful […]