Proposed New Employment Fora
Legislation is expected to be published this year which will pave the way for the replacement of all existing employment rights bodies, such as the Labour Court and the Employment Appeals Tribunal, with one body of first instance and one court of appeal. A single complaint form was introduced last January, replacing over 30 existing complaint forms covering 110 different complaint types. These measures are intended to streamline processes, minimise costs and reduce the current significant delays in the system.
Redundancy Rebate
As of New Year’s Day, in line with Budget 2013, the statutory redundancy rebate is no longer available to employers. However, where the date of dismissal was before 1 January 2013, employers remain entitled to the 15% rebate that prevailed in 2012.
Employment Permits Bill
The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation recently confirmed that legislation aimed at protecting undocumented migrant workers is being progressed as a matter of priority. The proposed legislation will address, amongst other matters, an important legal issue identified in a recent High Court decision. In August 2012, the High Court overturned a Rights Commissioner’s award of €91,134 in favour of a foreign national employed as a restaurant worker. The Court held that the employee’s contract of employment was substantively illegal in the absence of the appropriate employment permit and that he was therefore not entitled to the award. The proposed legislation will protect migrant workers whose employment in Ireland is unlawful by reason of not having a work permit. The Minister expects to publish the Bill in the first quarter of this year.
New Family Leave Bill to Increase Parental Leave
Shortly before Christmas, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter TD, announced the Government’s intention to draft a Family Leave Bill, which will transpose the EU Parental Leave Directive and consolidate all family leave legislation into one accessible Act. The Directive increases the parental leave available to each parent from 14 weeks to 18 weeks per child and must be transposed into Irish law by 8 March 2013. The Minister has stated that the change will have a positive impact on parents, and on women in particular, facilitating their participation in the labour force and protecting their right to resume employment after parental leave.
Gender Recognition
Legislation is also expected in 2013 to recognise the rights of transgender persons in Ireland. Currently, there is no protection against discrimination in the workplace on the ground that a person has changed gender. Any such discrimination can only be challenged on the gender ground. The Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts may have to be amended to introduce a new ground of ‘transgender’.
Recent developments have centred on the 2010 case involving Lydia Foy, in which the High Court held that Ireland was not in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights due to its failure to recognise a sex change that a Ms.Foy had undergone more than a decade earlier.
Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions) Bill 2012
The rehabilitation of offenders is the focus of this Bill, due to be passed this year. The Bill allows offenders to have convictions ‘spent’, or wiped from their record, after a period of between three and seven years, depending on the length of the sentence originally imposed by the courts. The Bill applies to convictions which carry a prison term of one year or less. It recognises that employment prospects are severely reduced by the mandatory disclosure of offences, and it is anticipated that its provisions will provide an incentive for offenders to re-enter the workplace.
Articles contributed by Catherine O’Flynn & Maryrose Dillon
Click here to read about the key developments in 2012
