Legal Risks Associated with Bring Your Own Device (BOYD) Policies

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 26/02/2013 BYOD (bring your own device) is a hot topic in the boardroom and for IT managers. BYOD involves allowing employees to use their own mobile devices for work purposes. Mobile devices include smart phones, tablets, storage devices and laptops. As culture and technology shift, people manage their lives...

Removal of an Executive Director from Employment

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 16/11/2012 Removal of an Executive Director from Employment and the Increasing Threat of the Employment Injunction.The threat of an injunction is re-emerging as an important tool in the armoury of executive directors faced with potential disciplinary action or dismissal. If an employer fails to adhere to a fa...

'Without Prejudice' Conversations - Risks and Pitfalls

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 14/08/2012 Many employers are of the view that once the employer states that a conversation with an employee is "off the record" or "without prejudice" anything that is said during that conversation cannot be disclosed by the employee in any subsequent legal proceedings. This is not the case.The “without prej...

Reasonableness in the Redundancy Process - Avoiding the Pitfalls

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 23/03/2012 Although redundancy legislation provides certain rules with regard to what constitutes a genuine redundancy, a dismissal by reason of redundancy can be deemed unfair if the employer is not considered to have acted reasonably. What constitutes reasonableness on the part of an employer has become som...

Anti-Social Networking

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 14/02/2012 It was 12 years ago last month when George W Bush asked this very pertinent (if some-what confusingly phrased) question. In that 12 year period, rather than becoming “more few”, the highways on the internet have expanded considerably. While once employees had only email to amuse themselves, they no...

Disability Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation Through Technological Advancements

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 07/11/2011 Introduction - Statutory RequirementsThe term “Disability” is broadly defined under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2011 (the “Equality Acts”) to include people with physical, intellectual, learning, cognitive or emotional disabilities and a range of medical conditions. Employers are not oblig...

New Protections for Temporary Agency Workers - 5 December Deadline Approaches

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 20/10/2011 IntroductionThe EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work (Directive 2008/104/EC, the “Directive”) is due to be transposed by all Member States of the European Union by 5 December 2011. The central objective of the Directive is to ensure equal treatment between temporary agency workers and workers recr...

Good News for Employers in the JLC System

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 29/07/2011 In a landmark case (John Grace Fried Chicken Limited, John Grace and Quick Service Food Alliance Limited -v-The Catering Joint Labour Committee, the Labour Court, Ireland and the Attorney General - High Court 2008 No. 10663P), Mr. Justice Feeney of the High Court has ruled that the Joint Labour Com...

Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment Disputes

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 24/05/2011 IntroductionAs the volume of employment claims increases, so too do the inevitable delays in resolving those claims. Waiting times of over 70 weeks are not uncommon in the Employment Appeals Tribunal, with delays in the region of two years in the Equality Tribunal. Now, more than ever, employers sh...

Absences, Duvet Days and the Recession Incentive

Posted in: LK Shields on Employment Law on 09/05/2011 Unauthorised absences are both frustrating and costly for employers. A report published in July 2010 by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions is instructive as to the extent of the problem in Ireland. The report refers to various sources which have estimated t...