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Employment Law Advice And Consultancy – What Is The Best Option For You?
Employment law regulates the relationship between employers and employees. It governs what employers can expect from employees, what employers can ask employees to do, and employees rights at work. Employment law is a minefield with continuous changes in government guidance. It can be challenging to keep on top of the ever-changing legislation. Particularly given the uncertainty of Brexit and Covid-19, employers must act with great caution to remain legally compliant. There are multiple options available; an employer could hire an in-house HR consultant or team, acquire an employment law advisor or solicitor, or pay for outsourced HR and employment law [...]
WRC inspections hike a warning to employers over compliance
The Workplace Relation Commission’s revelation that it carried out more than 5,000 unannounced inspections last year should serve as a warning to employers on compliance, a leading employment law adviser has said. In 2020, the WRC Inspectorate carried out a total of 7,687 inspections, of which 5,202 were unannounced. Martina McAuley, Director at HR Team, said the significant increase in completed inspections (4,804 overall in 2019, with 2,896 unannounced) “sends a strong message to employers to ensure they are compliant”. According to the WRC’s annual report, it detected 1,760 employers who were in breach of employment law, and recovered unpaid [...]
The HR Advisor March 2021
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Employers Urged To Prepare For Parent’s Leave Increase
Parent’s leave is to increase from two to five weeks and will apply to both parents and adoptive parents under new legislation which comes into effect in April 2021. HR Team Director, Martina McAuley, said: “Parents in Ireland will be able to take the five weeks of leave at any time within the first two years after a child’s birth or adoption instead of in the one-year period that was previously provided for in the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019. “The new legislation means it is now time for employers in Ireland to establish new policies and procedures, or [...]
Willy-nilly rejection of remote working requests will see flood of tribunal cases
Leading HR advisor says employers are anticipating a flood of employment law cases resulting from 'willy-nilly' rejection of remote working requests by employers. Martina McAuley, Director at HR Team, said employers who are not adequately prepared to deal with remote working requests - even post Covid-19 – run the risk of serious financial penalties. Unfair Dismissal Following The Refusal Of A Remote Working Request Ms McAuley made the comments after the Workplace Relations Commission ordered an employer to compensate a worker for unfair dismissal following the refusal of a request for remote working. Ms McAuley said: “Case law now exists [...]
Remote working law will boost staff retention and motivation says HR expert
A leading HR specialist says laws giving employees the right to request permanent remote working will improve staff retention and motivation. HR Team Director, Breda Cullen made the comments after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar published Ireland’s first National Remote Work Strategy which aims to make remote working a permanent option after the Covid-19 pandemic. A new legally admissible code of practice on the right to disconnect from work will also be introduced - covering phone calls, emails and switch-off time. However, Ms Cullen said it is important that employers are given clarity on how exactly the legislation will impact employers. Ms [...]
The HR Advisor February 2021
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Employers advised to ‘recommend not mandate’ Covid-19 vaccine
A leading HR consultant is advising Irish employers to recommend Covid-19 vaccination to employees rather than making it mandatory, when a vaccine is rolled out. HR Team Director, Breda Cullen, says the imminent availability of an approved vaccine has raised questions for employers over the legalities in mandating a vaccination for their teams. She says: “At present, there is no employment law surrounding how employers might manage the introduction of a vaccine and whether they can make it mandatory or not for employees. However, in all circumstances it will be important to be clear within internal policies and procedures. “Although [...]
Helping Employees Overcome The 5 Challenges of Lockdown
Many businesses are now having to think on their feet to ensure survival during lockdown and beyond, and HR Team’s experts are on-hand with commercially focused advice on how to make the right decisions. Director, Breda Cullen, says HR Team’s consultants are making a number of recommendations on how to implement the various options available to employers faced with very difficult decisions at this time. The key employment challenges in lockdown 1. Adhering to the latest government guidelines and restrictions in Ireland 2. Making temporary lay-offs or introducing short-time working 3. Considering redundancies 4. Homeworking Employers have a number of [...]
How to Manage your Annual Leave Backlog
Regardless of the employee’s length of employment or status, everyone is entitled to paid time off, whether they are part-time, fulltime, temporary, or casual workers. How can you manage your employee’s annual leave? The spread of coronavirus has had many impacts on businesses. One of these impacts being the accumulated amount of annual leave for employees. An employee accrues annual leave for any hours worked. If an employee has been laid off, they do not accumulate it during this period. Please note, employees accrue public holiday entitlements the first 13 weeks on layoff. A part-time employee will only qualify for [...]