ROI Employment Law In Brief: June 2023

June was a month of glorious sunshine, save the dates (our ROI Annual Review on 29th November!) and seminars! At Legal Island, we celebrated our 25th Anniversary, saw new developments at the WRC and more new employment laws introduced, this time on pay transparency. Grab a cuppa for a whistle-stop tour of the issues we were reading in June! 

WRC New Developments 

A number of new developments were introduced at the WRCincluding a helpful list of frequently cited authorities in WRC jurisprudence; table of remedies; mediation updates; summary information guide for practitioners and more.  
 
As part of Legal Island’s 25th Anniversary Webinar series, we explored the journey of the Adjudication Service of the WRC since its establishment to now.Our expert panel, Jennifer Cashman, Head of Employment, RDJ LLP and David Small, Director of Adjudication Services, WRC explored where we are in 2023 and what it means for Irish employers. Missed the webinar? Catch up on the recording here!  Check out all of the other Anniversary webinars (links below):  

It’s getting tricky to keep on top of all the AI and HR stories in the news at the minute! Here’s a few of June’s highlights……….  

Recently, and it seems, almost without any accompanying publicity, ChatGPT dropped in a brand-new function allowing the user to switch off the training function. In so doing, the user can ensure that any inputs are not used for training purposes.  Our new AI presenter, Jolene Rigby explains why this is such an important data security development and how to find this new function in ChatGPT.   

Personnel Today reported that as more organisations start to embrace AI in their operations, Dr Tanya Boyd, Insights explained how the HR function is no exception and how psychometric tools can help you decide how AI aligns with a team’s preferences.   

We learnt that one-fifth of Irish workers are currently using AI tools in their jobs, according to the Microsoft Ireland Work Trends Index.  Meanwhile Furniture giant Ikea is training up thousands of call centre workers to become interior design advisers as AI takes over their queries.   

However, not all are as positive about AI…. 

Some AI experts are saying AI is as dangerous to humanity as nuclear war and that it “risks extinction”. Yikes! For protection in the workplace, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions are calling for new regulations to protect workers from its impact.  

Pay Transparency Directive 

The EU Pay Transparency Directive has been finalised and must be implemented by June 2026, making gender pay gap reporting compulsory for many employers across Europe.  Equal pay for equal work has long been law across the EU, but to date its effective implementation and enforcement remains a challenge. In this month's First Tuesday Q&A, Bernard Martin, Senior Associate in A&L Goodbody's Employment Practice Group, provides an overview of the Pay Transparency Directive and what it means for employers.  

Diversity & Inclusion 

Lots happening in the D&I sphere in June, including pride festivities. The HR Director examines if many organisations go beyond performative allyship and tackle the real, painful workplace discrimination faced by the LGBTQ+ community at work. 

In other D&I news this month, employers have been called upon to implement a menstrual health support policy in the workplace after a recent survey showed 91% of respondents believed that menstruation affected their working life.  

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission published its 2022 Annual Report highlighting disability discrimination the highest area of public contact representing 42% of all equality related concerns. The top public concerns under the Employment Equality Acts focused on discrimination in employment and job seeking on the grounds of disability (39%), gender (16%) the race ground (12%) and age (12%).  

That’s it for June…enjoy the summer!  

Legal Island Training Resources for Your Staff

Managing and Motivating Remote Workers | eLearning Course

Are you responsible for overseeing the implementation of training for all employees in your organisation? Since the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations have offered office-based workers remote working options on a permanent basis. Therefore, it is necessary that managers are trained to optimise team performance. They also need to protect the wellbeing of each team member, whether they all work remotely, or some are based in the office and are part of a hybrid team. Legal Island has created an eLearning course in partnership with Think People Consulting that will provide managers of remote workers with the tools to manage and motivate their teams, optimise performance, and achieve organisational goals.

Click here to view our course on managing and motivating remote workers.