You will be in one of two situations: you are abreast of the current state of play in Irish employment legislation, you know exactly what your employees are entitled to and you know what actions you have to take to ensure you protect yourself from being taken to a Tribunal. Alternatively, you don’t print off the internet every new piece of employment legislation, read every Code of Practice or pore over every Tribunal judgment the employment systems produces. The likelihood is that the running of your business takes up every spare second and you don’t have the time or inclination to check what the national minimum wage for a 17 year old employee is. Because of this, where you have professional employment law help and advice available to you, this really is the best route to take, whether your query is simply about the national minimum wage or how to handle a tricky redundancy situation. Being given instant up to date legal guidance when you have a situation with one of your employees could prevent the matter escalating and, potentially, save a day or two at Tribunal and a financial penalty. An example: One of your employees comes to you and tells you that some of her colleagues have been ‘bullying’ her – leaving her out of conversations, sending derogatory emails to each other about her, stealing things from her desk and whispering in her presence. You may decide to tell her to pull her herself together and just get on with her job, she’s an adult for heaven’s sake. Making a phone call and getting some legal advice, on the other hand, would inform you that what your employee has actually done is raise a grievance with you. The bullying and harassment Codes of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures tell us how employers should deal with grievances that the employee wishes to resolve formally. Getting advice would inform you that you need to invite the employee to a hearing, allowing the employee to bring a companion, investigate the complaint, decide on appropriate action, let the employee know what you have decided and allow the employee to appeal. A successful result on her behalf may well see her moved to another team where she can once again work to her full potential. Neglecting to seek advice may well see your employee continue to suffer at the hands of her colleagues, and feel that she can no longer work for you because of the bullying and your failure to deal with her complaint. Under these circumstances she could leave and be entitled to claim constructive dismissal at Tribunal with an award of over 2 years’ pay, and if it was an equality issue you could be looking at up to 4 years’ pay for harassment and victimisation. Add this to the legal costs that can be associated with these claims coupled with the negative publicity that may occur, the impact on staff morale etc. Now really is the time to be taking advice from us. Call on 01 855 50 50 for employment law advice. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
