The Contract of Employment-Employment Contracts in Irish Employment Law - YouTube

Channel: Terry Gorry Solicitor

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