The law relating to: Wages, Hours, Right to leave

Wage Disputes

An employee is entitled to be paid in accordance with their contract and to be paid at least the minimum wage. An employee must also be given written information about their wages and any deductions from them.

Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 governs complaints in relation to unlawful deductions. A complaint is presented by way of notice in writing to a Rights Commissioner. It is for the Rights Commissioner to pass the complaint to the employer. Section 7 provides for a right of appeal to the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT).

Hours of Work

There are rules about the maximum hours an employee may work. Employees are entitled to rest periods and there are particular rules for people who work at night or on shift.

 Maternity Rights of Employees

1.  Maternity Leave

A pregnant employee shall be entitled to fourteen consecutive weeks as a minimum period of maternity leave.

Payment during Maternity Leave

There is no requirement in Irish law for Employers to pay their employees maternity pay. Employees on maternity leave are entitled to claim social welfare benefits however, which is at the rate of 70% of the employee’s reckonable earnings. Many employers, however, make their own contractual arrangements with employees.

2.  Health & Safety

The Pregnant Workers Directive requires Employers to carry out specific risk assessment for pregnant employees. The employer must reassess the risk in the workplace for that employee without delay. 

3. Employment Protection & The Right to Return to Work

Any termination notice by an Employer during protected maternity/ health & safety leave is void and an employee has a general right to return to their position, or suitable alternative work, held before the maternity leave.

Dismissals connected with pregnancy or giving birth are automatically classed as unfair.

Entitlement to Parental Leave

The Parental Leave Act implements the EU Directive to confer an entitlement to parental leave and ‘force majeure leave’ on qualifying employees.

Force Majeure Leave

Force majeure leave arises where for urgent family reasons owing to an injury or illness the immediate presence of the employee ‘at the place where the [injured or ill] person is…is indispensable.’ Force majeure leave may be taken in respect of one’s child, spouse, co-habitee, a person to whom the employee is in loco parentis, a sibling, a parent or grandparent.

Force majeure leave may consist of one or more days but shall not exceed three days in any twelve months or five days in any period of three years.

Rights on parental leave/ force majeure leave

The natural or adoptive parent is entitled to a period of fourteen working weeks parental leave to enable him or her to take care of the child. While on parental leave employees have to be treated as benefiting from all of their employment rights and entitlements other than remuneration and pension benefits. Many people believed that the EU Directive would lead to paid parental leave but this has not happened although it leaves it open for Employers to do so.

There is a general right to return to work for the same employer in the same job under the same contract, but if it is not ‘reasonably practicable for the Employer to permit the employee to return to work… the employee shall be entitled to be offered…suitable alternative employment