38% of employers in Ireland are unaware of the sweeping employment law reforms set to commence in one week

A survey carried out by employment law consultancy Peninsula Ireland has revealed that 38% of employers are unaware of the sweeping employment law reforms which are set to commence on the 4th of March 2019.

The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018, (the Act) which cleared all stages in both houses of the Oireachtas in December 2018 and has been signed into law by the President has been described as one of the most significant pieces of employment legislation in a generation. The government’s key objective in drafting the Act was to improve the security and predictability of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours. The Act aims to achieve this objective by granting more rights and protections to employees who find themselves in less secure working arrangements.

The Act which will come into effect on 4th of March will require employers to:

·         Provide employees with 5 core terms of employment within 5 days of employment commencing. Failure to provide the written statement of core terms within one month of employment commencing will be a criminal offence.

·         Stop using ‘zero hour’ contracts (unless there is a genuine requirement for a short-term relief/casual employee). This will particularly impact industries like tourism, healthcare, hospitality, etc.

·         Allow employees to request to be put in a ‘band of hours’ that reflects the actual hours worked rather than the contracted hours. This will particularly impact any employer who employs part-time or variable hours employees.

·         Provide a new minimum payment to be paid to employees who are not required to work on a certain week or who work less than 25% of their weekly contractual hours in a particular week.

Employers that fail to provide the five core terms of employment within one month of employment commencing may be found guilty of a criminal offence. If convicted, employers could face fines of up to €5,000 or up to 12 months’ imprisonment or both. In addition, directors, secretaries, senior managers and other officers of a corporate employer may be made individually liable for offences under the Act.

So what can employers do to prepare in this final week?  From the employer perspective, there is a real concern that small to medium-sized enterprises will find the increased compliance requirements difficult to comply with. The threat of criminal liability is also unlikely to incentivise start-up businesses to ramp up their employment levels. While the Act will affect all Irish-based employers, employers that rely on part-time or variable hours’ employees will be most impacted and should use the time between now and commencement of the Act to review their employment practices. Advice should be sought to query whether existing work practices comply with the new statutory requirements. If potential breaches are identified, these should be rectified before the Act comes into effect in early March.