Employment Law Update Autumn 2019 Laura Murphy Nicola Sheridan - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

12/09/2019 1

Employment Law Update

Autumn 2019

The webinar will begin shortly…

Laura Murphy

HR Manager at Thesaurus

Nicola Sheridan

Employment Specialist at Thesaurus

Employment Law Update 2019

Q&A Rec

Q&A Session Type into Questions box on your screen On Demand This session is being recorded

Employment Act 2018 – An overview Parental Leave SEOs Tips Gender Pay Reporting WRC Update Recent Cases Q&A

Webinar Agenda

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• Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions)

Act 2018

Has Happened!

• 1. Provide a contract within 1 week

1. The full name of employer & employee 2. The address of the employer 3. Temporary contract; the expected duration of the contracts or the date of expiry of a fixed-term contract 4. The rate of method of calculating pay and the pay reference period 5. What the employer reasonably expects to be the normal length

• f the employee’s working week

Terms & Conditions of Employment

Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 Name of Employer/Employee Rate, calculation & frequency of remuneration Address of Employer Reference to statement under minimum wage Place of work Paid leave Job Description/details Sick Pay Start date & duration Pension details Hours of work incl. overtime Notice on termination Rest periods and breaks Details of any collective agreements

Failure to Comply

• Failure to comply can give rise to a criminal offence

Ø Fines of up to €5,000 Ø Imprisonment of up to 12 months

• Liability falls to anyone with responsibility

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• 2. Zero Hours Contracts Banned
• 3. Banded Hours

Grounds for Refusal:

• No evidence to support the employee’s

claim

• There have been significant adverse

changes to the business

• Due to exceptional circumstances, e.g.

emergency

• The average hours worked were affected

by a temporary situation

8 Bands

Band A: 3 to 6 hours Band B: 6 to 11 hours Band C: 11 to 16 hours Band D: 16 to 21 hours Band E: 21 to 26 hours Band F: 26 to 31 hours Band G: 31 to 36 hours Band H: Over 36 hours

• 4. Anti Penalisation

Penalisation covers:

• A detriment to terms and conditions of employment
• Discipline or dismissal
• Transfers
• Changing hours
• Reducing pay
• Intimidation
• 5. Minimum Wage

AGE CALCULATION CURRENT RATE Under 18 70% of minimum wage €6.86 Aged 18 80% of minimum wage €7.84 Aged 19 90% of minimum wage €8.82

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Top Tips

üReview your current employment contracts üAre you providing contracts within 5 days? üDo employee’s hours worked match contractual hours? üReview zero-hour contracts / practices - are they justified?

• Parental Leave

Has Happened!

Countries with Best Work Life Balance for Parents

• 1. Finland
• 2. Estonia
• 3. Austria
• 4. France
• 5. Germany
• 6. Sweden
• 7. Japan
• 8. Norway
• 9. Luxembourg

10.Slovakia

Countries with Worst Work Life Balance for Parents

• 1. United States
• 2. Mexico
• 3. Costa Rica
• 4. Canada
• 5. Chile
• 6. Israel
• 7. Turkey
• 8. Ireland
• 9. New Zealand

10.Switzerland

Survey by Expert Market

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Parental Leave

Pre September 2019 From 1 September 2019 From 1 September 2020 Weeks Leave 18 22 26 Availability up until 8th Birthday 12th Birthday 12th Birthday Children with disabilities 16th Birthday 16th Birthday 16th Birthday

Example

• John and his daughter Jane
• John previously used 10 weeks parental leave
• Jane turned 8 – remaining 8 weeks parental leave expired
• New legislation – 4 more weeks given & increase in age to use

leave now 12 years

• John happily has 12 weeks parental leave now available to use
• This will increase again by 4 weeks in 2020

Entitlement to Parental Leave

• 1 Years service
• Be a ‘relevant’ parent
• Availability - per parent not per child
• Give at least 6 weeks notice in writing
• Annual leave entitlement is not impacted
• Multiple children, capped at 18 weeks per year
• Pro-rata for part-time workers

Responding to a Parental Leave Request

• Cannot refuse parental leave requests
• May postpone for 6 months
• Must provide 4 weeks notice to employee
• Normally only 1 postponement allowed
• Records kept for 12 years
• Permitted format:
• r
• Other formats at employers discretion

18 week block 6 weeks 6 weeks 6 weeks

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Parental leave reduced hours working arrangements

Benefits

• Attract top talent
• Staff retention and less staff turnover
• Improved employee well-being
• Morale / loyalty
• Diversity

Currently Parental Leave is… Proposed Paid Parental Leave

November 2019 2021 2 weeks 7 weeks

What Employers Need to Do

• Update your Parental Leave Policy
• Be prepared for increased staff parental leave requests
• Record keeping
• Consider flexible working arrangements
• From November; will you ‘top-up’ parental leave benefit?

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• Sectoral Employment Order

Is Happening!

Electrical Contractors

Minimum Wage Rates Category 1 €23.49 Category 2 €23.96 Category 3 €24.34 Apprentice Minimum Wage Year 1 €7.05 Year 2 €10.57 Year 3 €15.27 Year 4 €18.80

New Pay Rates

Category of Worker Rates applying for the period from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020 Rates applying from 1 October 2020 A Craftsperson €19.44 per hour (the ‘Craft Rate’) €19.96 per hour (the ‘2020 Craft Rate’) Category A Worker €18.86 per hour (this rate is unchanged from the 2017 Order) €19.37 per hour Category B Worker €17.50 per hour (this rate is unchanged from the 2017 Order) €17.97 per hour Apprentice One third of the Craft Rate and rising to 90% of the Craft Rate in the fourth year One third of the 2020 Craft Rate and rising to 90% of the 2020 Craft Rate in the fourth year New Entrant Operative Workers €14.14 per hour (provided that the New Entrant is over the age

• f 18 years and entering the

sector for the first time) €14.52 per hour (same conditions apply to New Entrants)

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What Employers Need to Do

• Ensure contracts of employment reference the SEO
• Review pay rates
• Review policies and procedures
• Employee Tips & Gratuities

Planned to Happen!

Transparency for Tipping

• Contractual pay should not be paid using tips
• Tip policy should be clearly visible

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• Gender Pay Reporting

Planned to Happen!

Equal Pay and Gender Pay Gap are different

Gender Pay Gap Equal Pay Men and Women doing the same job receiving the same pay The difference between men & women’s average pay across an

• rganisation

Current Gender Pay Gap

Gap in Europe Gap in Ireland 13.9% 16.7%

Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2019

250+ Employees 50 + Employees

Information to be reported

• The mean and median gap in hourly pay between men and women.
• The mean and median gap in bonus pay between men and women.
• The mean and median gap in hourly pay of part-time male and female

employees.

• The percentage of men and of women who received bonus pay.
• The percentage of men and of women who received benefits in kind.

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UK Gender Pay Stats

• 12% of companies had a pay gap in favour of women

How big is the Pay Gap at…?

• McDonalds ………..0%
• BT……………………….4.2% (women)
• British Airways…….13% (men)
• BBC…………………….17.2% (men)
• Barclays……………….44.1% (men)
• Ryanair………………66.6% (men)

A bigger issue

Diversity & inclusion

What Employers can do

Showcase yourself as a forward thinking employer

• Recruitment & Promotion
• Include multiple women in shortlists
• Use structured interviews
• Advertise jobs has having flexible working options
• Encourage uptake of parental leave & paternity leave
• Review your policies – equality policy
• WRC Update

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Industrial Landscape

In the new

Nurses and Midwives HSE Support staff Ryanair Bus Eireann

WRC Claim Numbers 2016 14,400 complaints (15 months) 2017 14,001 complaints 2018 15,415 complains

WRC Stats

WRC Helpline Calls Answered 2017 50,000+ 2018 57,000+ Workplace Inspections Inspections conducted Pay Recovered 2017 4,747 €1.77m 2018 5,753 €3.1M

WRC Inspections

• 50% breaches due to insufficient record keeping
• Our advice: be sure your employee records are up-to-date!

Keeping your Records up-to-date

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• Lessons from Recent Cases

Can an employee have legal representation at a disciplinary hearing?

What we can take from these cases:

• Legal representation only permitted in exceptional circumstances
• Dismissal is not considered exceptional

Lyons V Longford-Westmeath Education Board 2017 Irish Rail v Barry McKelvey Work v Mushroom Farm

Who can attend?

• A colleague or a trade union representative
• Legal representation is not generally permitted
• Should be stated in the disciplinary procedure
• Be open to requests to be accompanied

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Setting a compulsory retirement age

Background

• Mary is to retire on her 65th birthday
• Wished to keep working beyond this date….
• Subsequent staff hired on same grade had later retirement dates
• Her request is rejected
• WRC

Decision Making

• WRC found in favour of Mary – Council failed to objectively justify retirement age
• €13,000 in compensation
• Council appealed to the Labour Court - argued legitimate aim of workforce planning and financial management

Result

• WRC decision upheld. Council “failed to objectively justify the selection of a retirement age of 65 when it

compulsorily retired the complainant”.

• Dismissed Council’s appeal
• Increased compensation award to €20,000

Learning Points for Employers

• No compulsory retirement age in Ireland…
• Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Act 2018
• This case shows that increasing mandatory retirement age for most

public servants will make it difficult to justify a lower retirement age then for others….

• Objectively justifiable
• Retirement policy is essential
• Fixed term contract

www.brightcontracts.ie Email: Support@brightcontracts.ie

• Simply create staff contracts /

handbooks in minutes

• GDPR compliant staff policies &

procedures

• Automatic content updates
• Online HR database
• Links with Thesaurus &

BrightPay

• Bureau toolkit
• Free telephone & email support
• Secure and user-friendly way to

backup & restore payroll data

• Employee self-service app
• GDPR compliant
• Access to reports on the go
• Provides Bureaus with a multi-

company platform

• Free Connect access for 2019
• Free telephone & email support

www.thesaurus.ie/connect/ Email: connect@thesaurussoftware.com

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• Questions & Answers

Upcoming Webinars

17th September @ 11.00 am Payroll and cloud platforms: What employers need to know 24th September @ 11.00 am PAYE Modernisation: one year on – was it a success?