hello there my name is Terry Gorry I'm a solicitor and I just made this short
video about the contract of employment in Ireland in Irish employment law
it's a source of problems for employers and employees alike this is created from
the perspective I suppose of the employer but it will be instructive to
employees who may be watching this video also so ok let's take a look fortunately
before granting a contract of employment in Ireland there are three critical
areas you need to look at and be careful about if you're an employer one is
advertising the position two is the interviewing of candidates and three is
conditions precedent in other words any job offers that you may make
that you are making that offer subject to or conditional upon the fulfilment of
some condition or other these are three critical areas for employers firstly
advertising the job the wording of the ad is critical it is very very easy to
discriminate against a certain cohort of people and employment equality
legislation is critically important here so it's vital that the wording of the ad
does not discriminate against any group of people in the nine areas which allow
for a claim to be brought to the equality tribunal which can be very
expensive and coincidentally this is a strange situation but somebody who
doesn't actually get the job who was never your employee can actually bring a
case to the Equality tribunal if they have gone through an interviewing
process weren't successful they can still actually bring a case against you
even though as I say it's an unusual situation insofar as they are not
your employee and never were your employee interviewing is a critical area
also again you're back to the question of
discriminatory questions and discrimination employment equality acts
set out discrimination on nine grounds for example marital status membership of
the travelling community sex religion and so forth conditions precedent then
you should be making your job offer on certain conditions for example is the
person healthy enough to do the job you may well you know make it a condition
precedent that they passed a physical or medical rather they may need a clean
driving license they may need vetting garda vetting depending if it's
you know a child care job or teaching or whatever or working in a school you may
need and make your job condition earlier job offers rather conditional on
satisfactory references the terms of employment end in a contract firstly
there are a number of implied terms in any contract of employment for example
the right not to be discriminated against the right to notice the right to
breaks and annual leave these are terms that are implied by statute in other
words laws that are on the statute books of the Irish state there are also terms
implied by custom and practice in some industries and then there are terms that
are implied by common law for example the employers duty of care to the
employee and the employee's duty of confidence and trust in the employer and
not to betray that trust then there are express terms of employment which we
spelled out in the contract these can be oral or in writing but they
should actually be in writing for the sort of clarity and safety of both
employer and employee the terms of employment information acts of 1994 to
2001 set out that an employee must be given a
statement within two months of appointment certain information about
the employment contract this is a statutory obligation on the employer
as well as the statutory obligation to provide certain information it is
advisable also for the employer to put in additional terms depending on the
employment and the circumstances for example illness pay or sick pay sick
leave retirement age is there going to be a retirement age and the whole area
of time off work when somebody is out sick for example is it enough that they
text in or ring in or what is the arrangement will there be a probationary
period will the employment have bullying and harassment procedures and are these
brought to the attention of the employee likewise with grievance and disciplinary
procedures fixed term contracts then are a specific type of contract they end
on a particular date if you know the date at the outset or on the
occurrence of a specific event for example to cover say maternity leave when you
have a fair idea when somebody may be coming back to work but you're not sure
and you need to make provision for somebody returning for example from
maternity leave early the protection of employees fixed-term Work Act of 2003
protects these employees that's employees on fixed term contracts the
renewal of fixed term contracts then can also be problematic fixed term contracts
essentially cannot be renewed indefinitely or a contract of indefinite
duration may arise by operation of law fixed term workers then are entitled to
be treated no less favorably than their permanent counterparts the termination
of employment contracts then is a very very thorny issue for obviously both
employers employees alike it can go pear-shaped quite frankly for employers
there are two crucial points to remember about termination contract one the
notice period is set down by statute and or the contract in other words there are
minimum notice periods set down in law but your contract may allow for or
provide a greater notice period the reason for termination is important
also lest the claim for unfair dismissal arises changing a contract of employment
is equally a difficult and problematic area for employers it must be treated
very carefully because an employer cannot simply change a contract of
employment unilaterally in other words without the consent of the employee for
more free information about employment law in Ireland and you can visit my website
business and legal dot i e or you can call me on the number you see on the
screen or you can email me at Terry at business and legal dot i e thanks for
taking the time to watch