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Employment
We have Ireland’s largest Employment Group and we provide an extensive range of legal services to clients on all aspects of employment and industrial relations law, whether it is a problem relating to an individual employee or a complex issue affecting your entire workforce.
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Our Employment Group adopts a partnership approach and works very closely with chairs, chief executives, in-house counsel, HR directors and HR professionals to find practical, effective and creative solutions to both everyday and exceptional problems. We pride ourselves on having a very strong commercial approach to problem-solving. The Group is consistently top ranked in the areas of Employment / Labour Law and Industrial Relations, and is an established market leader in its field with considerable experience in advising on a vast range of complex employment issues for a wide variety of clients at both national and global levels.
We have extensive experience in dealing with every aspect of the employer – employee relationship, including:
- Strategic people issues at board/CEO level
- Employment litigation, mediation and dispute resolution
- Employment contracts, policies and handbooks
- Appointment and severance of senior executives
- Outsourcing of services
- Discrimination, equality and equal status law
- Redundancies and collective redundancies
- Immigration and employment permits
- Employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions and other commercial transactions
- High Court litigation and dismissal/non-compete/picketing injunctions
- Equal pay and gender pay gap reporting
- Employment agencies and agency workers
- Collective disputes, industrial action and trade union relations/recognition
- Health and safety
- Atypical work arrangements (part time, fixed term, job-sharing, flexible working, home-working, etc.)
- Bullying, harassment and victimisation
- Dismissals, disciplinary and performance management
- Employee benefits and pensions
- Employee privacy
- Whistleblowing/protected disclosures
- Crisis management
Incentives
Our team advises a wide variety of clients including multinational publicly listed companies and their subsidiaries in Ireland, private companies including venture backed and high growth companies, financial institutions, trustees and individual awardees.
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Relevant Experience
Due to the sensitive nature of the work involved, we do not disclose our clients’ details but examples of the types of work undertaken by the Group are as follows:
- Obtaining High Court injunctions restraining unlawful picketing by employees and their trade unions, and advising on disputes with trade unions on recognition issues and collective bargaining and claims in relation to pay and conditions
- Defending High Court injunction applications sought by employees to restrain the termination of employment and/or disciplinary action
- Defending claims for personal injury and occupational illness/stress/bullying and harassment
- Advocacy at the Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court in litigation relating to statutory employment claims, as well as industrial relations issues
- Advising on the management/processing of whistleblowing/protected disclosure investigations
- Advising on disputes on retirement and pensions issues, including age discrimination, professional added years, augmentation of benefits and early retirement
- Defending deemed employment claims
- Providing employment law advice and support on some of Ireland largest corporate transactions
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Domestic Violence Leave to be Effective from 27 November
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High Court orders reinstatement of school principal subjected to “terrible injustice”
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Arthur Cox advises AviLease on acquisition of Standard Chartered’s aircraft leasing business
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Employees on Domestic Violence Leave to Receive Full Pay
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Insights from the Central Bank’s Administrative Sanctions Procedure (ASP) Consultation
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The Pay Transparency Directive: What does it mean for Irish employers?
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New Employment Rights to Come into Force on 3 July
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Arthur Cox advises Ørsted on Irish offshore wind portfolio
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Arthur Cox advises PFH Technology Group Limited on its sale to Ricoh Europe Holdings plc
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Arthur Cox advises ArisGlobal on its acquisition of Sporify
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JERA Co., Inc. acquisition of wind energy platform Parkwind
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Security Matters business combination with Lionheart III Corp
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Arthur Cox pleased to advise Apex Group on the acquisition of Bank of America Irish depositary business
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Arthur Cox Employment Group recognised in IEL Elite
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AssuredPartners acquisition of O’Callaghan Insurances
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Arthur Cox and International Employment Lawyer: Guide to Workplace Investigations
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Arthur Cox advises Utmost on its acquisition by Beeline
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Arthur Cox advising Musgrave on its acquisition of Italicatessen (Ireland and UK)
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Arthur Cox advises Spotify on its acquisition of Kinzen
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Arcadis NV acquisition of DPS Group
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Arthur Cox and Chambers Global Practice Guides – Employment 2022
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Mission Spring Ventures and Pacific Lake Partners acquisition of ETU
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Arthur Cox advises MTM Engineering on investment by Waterland Private Equity
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Security Matters Limited merger with Lionheart III Corp
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Cambrex Corporation acquisition of Q1 Scientific Limited
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Biosynth Carbosynth acquisition of Aalto Bio Reagents
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GMIB proposed sale to AssuredPartners
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Digital 9 Infrastructure plc acquisition of Host Ireland
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Glanbia plc disposal of 40% interest in Glanbia Ireland DAC
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UFP Technologies, Inc. acquisition of Advant Medical
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Concord Acquisition Corp. combination with Circle Internet Financial Limited
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Sean Mulryan investment in Modmo
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Digital 9 Infrastructure plc in agreement to acquire eir’s majority stake in Tetra Ireland
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Gilde Healthcare and Lightstone Ventures Series A investment in ProVerum Limited
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Permanent TSB plc acquisition of elements of Ulster Bank business
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ProAmpac acquisition of Irish Flexible Packaging and Fispak
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Linesight acquisition by IPS-Integrated Project Services, LLC
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Viavi Solutions acquisition of Anuview Software Limited
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Bridgepoint and Astorg acquisition of Fenergo Group Limited
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Cognizant acquisition of TQS Integration Limited
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Concord Acquisition Corp. combines with Circle Internet Financial Limited to take Circle public
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Flutter Entertainment plc sale of Oddschecker
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Strencom acquisition by Welltel
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Ørsted in agreement to acquire Brookfield Renewable Ireland
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Arthur Cox Employment Law Yearbook 2020 published
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EML Payments to acquire Sentenial and its Open Banking brand Nuapay
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PRA Health Sciences proposed acquisition by ICON plc
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Arthur Cox advises Ally Bridge Group (HK) Limited on its equity investment in Mainstay Medical Holdings plc.
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Arthur Cox acts on Series B investment into Flipdish
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Hyperion Materials & Technologies acquisition of NanoDiamond Products
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Repligen Corporation in agreement to acquire ARTeSYN Biosolutions
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Lansweeper acquisition of Fing
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Caldic B.V. to acquire Brand-Nu Laboratories and BNL Sciences
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Apex Group Ltd. to acquire Fundrock Management Company SA and FundRock Partners Ltd.
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Acquisition by MJ Hudson of Bridge Consulting
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Further Global Capital Management acquisition of AA Ireland group
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Greenergy agrees to acquire Amber Petroleum
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Arthur Cox advises LRN Corporation on its acquisition of Interactive Services
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Arthur Cox advises the Hickey’s pharmacy group on its acquisition by Uniphar plc
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Bunzl agrees to acquire majority interest in Abco Kovex
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MSD Animal Health Completes Acquisition of IdentiGEN
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Madison Dearborn Partners in Agreement to Acquire IPL Plastics Inc.
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Arthur Cox advises Openet on its acquisition by Amdocs for net consideration of approximately $180 million
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Workplace Bullying – The Supreme Court Settles The Law
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What’s Another Year – January 2023
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Additional tax free benefits possible for your employees this Christmas, along with other Finance Act 2022 changes
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New laws on the treatment of tips and gratuities by employers have come into effect
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Government Issues Interim Guidance on the Handling of Reports Made Under the New Protected Disclosures Regime
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The transposition of the EU Directive on transparent and predictable working conditions
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New leave for medical care purposes and flexible working arrangements for carers are to be introduced later this year
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Employer Alert: Employers have until 1 January 2023 to comply with the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022
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When one thing leads to another: Employer’s use of CCTV Footage in Disciplinary Hearings
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Arthur Cox contributes to Mondaq’s ESG Guide
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Arthur Cox contributes to Mondaq’s Labour and Employment Guide
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Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Labour & Employment 2022
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Arthur Cox contributes to ICLG Fintech 2022
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Statutory Sick Leave Scheme Becomes Law
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Irish Times Business Ireland Magazine: Time to bridge the gender pay gap
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Practical Law Global Guide: Establishing a Business in Ireland
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Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022 goes to the President to be signed into law
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Employer Alert: Government publishes long-awaited gender pay gap reporting regulations
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Employer Alert: Government publishes additional guidance for employers on gender pay gap reporting
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Government Guidance on Calculating Gender Pay Gap Metrics
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Employment and HR Considerations of IAF and SEAR
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Practical Law Global Guide: Doing Business in Ireland
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Government publishes the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill: Employers should act now
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Updated guidance on the return to workplaces: Maintaining good practice is key
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Significant employment law changes on the Government’s legislative agenda
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Right to request remote working is on the way
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WRC finds that withholding of ex gratia payment constitutes penalisation under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005
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Data Protection Commission issues Updated Guidance on Processing COVID-19 Vaccination Data
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Labour Court awards €75,000 for failure to provide reasonable accommodation and discriminatory dismissal
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Employer Alert: Introduction of statutory sick pay scheme one step closer
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COVID-19: Employer Alert – Government announces new special redundancy payment
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Transfer of Employees – the Labour Court reaffirms core principles
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Updated Code of Practice on Determining Employment Status: What’s changed?
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Employer Alert: Remote Working Checklist for Employers Published
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Employer Alert: Updated Code of Practice on Determining Employment Status Published
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Employer Alert: Government launches a consultation on a review of the Equality Acts
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Employer Alert: Workplace Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 becomes law
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Government announces imminent changes to the Protected Disclosures regime
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Gender Pay Gap (Information) Bill 2019 becomes law
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Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of law creating SEOs
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Revised Work Safely Protocol – New considerations for employers on a return to the workplace
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Caesar’s wife no longer the exemplar in bias cases?
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Updated Revenue Guidance on the Tax Treatment of Out of Court Settlements in Employment Claims
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Permanent changes for the WRC and the wider implications of the recent Supreme Court decision in Zalewski
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Labour and Employment 2021 – Getting the Deal Through
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Supermarket Sweep –Asda Retail Employees can point to Asda Depot employees as Comparators for Equal Pay Claims
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Employer entitled to use WhatsApp messages, uncovered during criminal investigation, in subsequent workplace investigation
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Pandemic is no excuse for employer’s unfair selection process when implementing a redundancy
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Health and Safety Group Audio briefing Series – Episode Three: Employment Update
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Data Protection Commission Investigations: Insights from the Annual Report
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Employer Alert: New Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect
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Re-Engagement of Employee Ordered Following Remote Gross Misconduct Dismissal
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Handle with Care: Implied rights of lay-off/short time
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Finding of gender discrimination in access to promotion leads to maximum award of compensation
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Final Destination: UK Supreme Court rules Uber drivers entitled to workers’ rights
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Court of Appeal Overturns Probationary Dismissal Injunction
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Employer Alert: New Code of Practice on Workplace Bullying
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High Court Considers Penalisation under Protected Disclosures Act 2014 For the First Time
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See EU Later: The Impact of Brexit on the Employment Law Landscape
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Collective Redundancies: What’s new?
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Remote Working is Here to Stay – Ireland’s first National Remote Work Strategy
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Employer Alert: Right to Disconnect on the Horizon
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Penalisation and Health and Safety: Employers Beware!
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Family Business Winter Update
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Employer Alert: Statutory Sick Pay on the Horizon?
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Transgender Inclusion in the Workplace
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Employer’s Processing of Employee’s Criminal Offence Data Deemed Lawful under GDPR *
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Don’t count your chickens before… getting tax advice!
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Employer successfully defends former HR Executive’s equal pay claim
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UK EAT finds caps on termination payments are not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim of preventing a windfall
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Critique your criteria! Selection criteria used in a redundancy process may indirectly discriminate against disabled workers
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Protected Disclosures – Recent Case Law Address Novel Points (Part II)
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Protected Disclosures – Recent Case Law Address Novel Points (Part I)
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A bridge too far, or not far enough? – a recent decision of the UK EAT provides insight for employers in determining what may be considered a reasonable accommodation.
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Former Professional Cyclist’s Attempt to Claim Employment Status Thrown Off Track
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Procedural fairness and Constitutionality of the WRC Upheld by the High Court
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Arthur Cox contributes to The Law Reviews: The Corporate Immigration Review
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Don’t dismiss the rights of employees on probation!
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High Court Finds Sectoral Employment Orders and Relevant Industrial Relations Legislation are Unconstitutional
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Words have wings and an employee’s discriminatory views may also have claws: Homophobic remarks and the Equal Treatment Directive
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At a glance: What is in the Programme for Government for Employers and Employees?
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Restrictive Covenants Case Law Update – Recent decision from the UK Court of Appeal regarding liability in tort for inducing breach of contract
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WRC Considers fairness of dismissal of employee subject to Central Bank’s Fitness and Probity Standards
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Employee claims entitlement to higher wage due to computational error in contract
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Watching you watching me: Guidance on Employers’ use of CCTV Footage in Disciplinary Hearings
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€27,000 Award for Sexual Orientation Harassment
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Ten Issues Family Businesses Should Be Considering Right Now
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Vicarious Liability – two important judgments from the UK Courts
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UK Supreme Court allows appeal in landmark decision on employers’ liability in class action for mass data breach by employee
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Protected Disclosures Update – Recent Case Law and the New EU Whistleblower’s Directive
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Labour Court decides that migrant workers without valid immigration permissions cannot bring complaints to the WRC and Labour Court
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Employers potentially liable for accidents suffered by employees driving from work
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The best things in life are free – the second best are very expensive: employment law considerations in recruitment
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Fitness and Probity, Control Functions and Unfair Dismissal
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WRC case satisfies McKelvey ‘exceptional circumstances’ test for legal representation
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UK Developments on Reasonable Accommodation
Another sick note? Labour Court upholds dismissal for persistent short-term absences
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Curtains for Dismissal of Dyslexic Actor
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WRC orders re-engagement of worker dismissed after he punched a colleague in self-defence
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Smile! You’re on Hidden Camera: European Court of Human Rights Permits the Use of Hidden Cameras
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School ordered to pay over €90,000 for discriminating against deputy principal on gender ground
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High Court quashes final written warning given to teacher but not Board of Management’s finding that he engaged in inappropriate behaviour
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Refusal to give employee right to be represented by trade union official at disciplinary hearing could be procedurally unfair
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Supreme Court finds right to legal representation in disciplinary processes is exception rather than rule
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Work-Life Balance: Weighing up the benefits and costs of the new parental leave entitlements
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Enforcement of post-termination restrictive covenants: UK Supreme Court uses its ‘blue pencil’
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Mandatory Retirement: An Update on Recent Cases
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High Court delivers landmark decision on employer’s obligations in relation to Sunday work
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Daly v Nano Nagle School: Landmark Supreme Court Decision on Reasonable Accommodation
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European Court of Justice – Reducing severance payments to reflect period of parental or maternity leave constitutes indirect sex discrimination
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Protected Disclosures: Is disclosure related penalisation, which occurs before disclosure is made, prohibited?
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Employers required to consider whether factors other than the seriousness of allegations justify suspension
Springing into act: Preventing confidential information being used by former employee
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Privacy in the workplace: Can employers rely on personal communications to dismiss?
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Labour Court rules no penalisation where dismissal of whistleblower is “wholly unrelated” to disclosures made
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WRC Can Dis-apply Irish Law to Ensure Effectiveness of EU Law
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Till death (or retirement) do us part: Entitlement to long-term disability benefits until retirement age or death
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Employment Injunctions: Courts will not “entertain” an injunction where legislation covers the employee’s claim, available remedies and means of redress
Accidents at work: Court of Appeal reiterates there is not “unlimited” employer liability
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Labour Court upholds finding that forced retirement was discriminatory dismissal
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“Unbroken residency” requirement for citizenship sparks concern
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Step Plan to Tackling Banded Hours Requests under the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018
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Employer discriminated against employee by asking her to keep her sexuality a secret
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You raise me up, so I can… sue my employer?
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Disciplinary Processes – What Not To Do!
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UK EAT concludes that bad leaver provisions were neither unconscionable nor a penalty clause
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Labour Court re-affirms that different treatment does not necessarily mean less favourable treatment
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Equality in the workplace – Can employers prefer interviewees with ‘protected characteristics’?
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Working Time Records: Europe rules that employers must have an objective, reliable and accessible system to record daily working time
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When will a shop steward’s actions be trade union activities and when will they be something else?
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Being held to account for exploitation: The personal liability of directors for inducing a breach of employment contract
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Workplace Dispute Resolution in Ireland – Is it time for change?
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Kerins Decision: A Cautionary Tale for Employers
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What your employer knows may hurt you: less favourable treatment by an employer, on the basis of employer’s religious belief, does not establish direct discrimination
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Government’s Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2019 published
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Immigration Update: Government eases restrictions on non-EEA workers in the construction and sports industries
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All reasons will be considered when deciding if TUPE transfer is the sole or principal reason for the dismissal
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Labour Court highlights limits to TUPE protections: Refusal to transfer amounts to resignation
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Employers should not rely blindly on unfair dismissal exclusion clause in fixed-term contracts
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Enforcement of Post-Termination Restrictive Covenants at Injunction Stage is a Balancing Act
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The age old question – When is there age discrimination?
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Consideration of the Burden of Proof in Direct Discrimination Cases
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Lacking a disability proves a bar to bringing a disability discrimination claim
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Lecturer with ‘non-PC’ views not protected by UK employment equality legislation
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Covert Monitoring of Employees and the Right to Privacy under Article 8 ECHR: Can these two be reconciled?
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Employers’ obligations in respect of employees’ personal data – Two cases offer some clarity
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Increase in Compulsory Retirement Age to 70 for Certain Public Service Workers
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Fair procedures are required when dismissing an employee during probation
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Supreme Court finds right to legal representation in disciplinary processes is exception rather than rule
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Refusal to supply “Support Gay Marriage” cake not discriminatory
Insights Blog
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Restriction on use of NDAs in employment equality claims now law
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Bill which allows for the postponement of maternity leave and restricts the use of NDAs to become law
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Department of Finance publishes Review of the Taxation of Share-Based Remuneration
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New employment permits legislation to come into force on 2 September 2024
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Parent's leave extended to nine weeks from 1 August 2024
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Employment Permits Act signed into law
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Changes to gender pay gap reporting for 2024
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Increased protection for employees in insolvency situations comes into force from 1 July 2024
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Employment Law Update: Supreme Court upholds mandatory retirement age
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Right to work extended to eligible spouses and partners of all employment permit holders
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Increased protection for employees in insolvency situations signed into law
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