Business Owners and Managers are all too aware of the on-going challenges and constant changes in the area of Employment Law and HR Best Practice. This webinar offers the opportunity for employers to keep abreast of change and plan for the future. The webinar covers: Terms and Conditions of Employment Gender Pay Reporting Parental Leave WRC 2019 Targets For more information visit https://www.thesaurus.ie or https://www.brightpay.ie

1. 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

2. 12/09/2019
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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
of 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

3. 12/09/2019
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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

5. 12/09/2019
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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:
or
• Other formats at employers discretion
18 week block 6 weeks 6 weeks 6 weeks

6. 12/09/2019
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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?

7. 12/09/2019
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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
of 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

9. 12/09/2019
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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
organisation
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.

10. 12/09/2019
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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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13. 12/09/2019
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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

14. 12/09/2019
14
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

15. 12/09/2019
15
-Questions & Answers
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platforms: What
employers need to know
24th
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