Come visit us at the Irish Beauty Show!
Due to severe weather conditions The Irish Beauty Show has been postponed until 8th- 9th April 2018.
Bright Contracts will be at the Irish Beauty Show, RDS, Dublin on the 4th and 5th March. Come visit us at stand K49 to have a chat about how Bright Contracts can help your business. You can also attend our "HR Clinic: How to Survive a Workplace Inspection (WRC)" at the demo stage on Monday from 10:45 - 11:15 am.
In 2016 53% of businesses in the Hair and Beauty industry failed Workplace Relation Commission (WRC) inspections with failing to keep adequate employment records the most common breach at 62%. Bright Contracts is the go-to software solution for SMEs that creates and manages a professional staff handbook and contracts of employment so come and have a chat with us about how we can help you get your contracts in place and be prepared for a WRC inspection.
Everyone we speak to at the show can avail of:
- 20% off Bright Contracts
- Free demo the Bright Contracts software
- Free trial of Bright Contracts
- Sign up for our free GDPR webinar
- Register to our newsletter to hear about our free webinars and events, industry updates and special offers across our range of products.
Keeping appropriate employment records is not just a legal requirement but is also protection for both you and your employees. Not having records in place leaves you at a distinct disadvantage in the event of a dispute and at risk of failing an inspection.
New Code of Practice on Longer Working
Case 1
Paul Quigley, a highly regarded GP in addiction services in the North Dublin HSE was recently granted an injunction by the High Court to stop the HSE from forcing him to retire. His lawyers are claiming the forced retirement amounts to age discrimination.
Case 2
A WRC adjudicator recently ruled that Susan Devereaux, who was forced to retire from her job, should be re-instated in her role with Pdforra, as the employer had failed to ‘objectively justify’ its reasons for dismissing her when she reached the age of 60.
Case 3
A Bookkeeper who was ‘retired’ by her employer on reaching the age of 66 has been awarded €12,000 in an age discrimination case she took against her employer.
These are just a few of the cases relating to forced retirement that has come up in the courts over the last few months. They have brought attention to the fact that these now ‘retired’ workers were sometimes unable to claim the State pension as they may not have reached the eligible age to do so. At the moment private sector workers in Ireland can start to receive the State pension at the age of 66, this will rise to 67 in 2021 and again to 68 in 2028.
The Workplace Relations Commission has now published a Code of Practice, Industrial Relations Act 1990 (Code of Practice on Longer Working)(Declaration) Order 2017. The Code can now be used to help employer’s when dealing with retirement and requests to work beyond the retirement age. Although not legally binding, any employer who does not follow the guidelines will need to be able to justify the reasoning behind it.
On publishing the new Code of Practice, the WRC has set out what should be taken into consideration when it comes to retirement in the workplace:
Utilising the skills, abilities and experience of older workers
- Draw on benefits of older workers and utilize through training and knowledge sharing with younger members of staff.
- Train all management about age diversity and the benefits of such diversity in the workplace
Objective Justification
- If a mandatory retirement age is set within a company, the employer must be able to ‘objectively justify’ the reason for it, examples may include health and safety, intergenerational fairness.
Set out a step by step ‘Retirement Process’
- Set timelines and give adequate notice prior to retirement date
- Explore transitional arrangements like flexible working, alternative roles up to date of retirement.
Requests to work longer
- Need to be seen to be taken into consideration
- Procedures set in place for acceptance and refusal of requests to work after set retirement age.
As a whole we are all living longer so it seems only natural that we would also be allowed to work for longer? This new Code of Practice will be very important going forward for Irish Employment legislation and employer’s alike.
For more information please click here
To book a free online demo of Bright Contracts click here
To download your free trial of Bright Contracts click here
