20/09/2022

Sick Leave Act

As we reported in November 2021, Ireland is introducing a statutory entitlement to sick pay.

On 20 July 2022 the Sick Leave Act 2022 became law.

Under the Act employees will receive paid sick leave (70% of normal wages up to a maximum of €110 per day) for up to 3 days per year. This will increase as follows:

• 2022 – 3 days covered
• 2023 – 5 days covered
• 2024 – 7 days covered
• 2025 – 10 days covered

Employees Sick Pay entitlement starts once the law is commenced. This requires a Ministerial Order and is expected shortly.

WRC Annual Report 2021

On 1 July 2022 the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) published its seventh annual report outlining the challenges faced by the WRC in 2021 and the ways in which it worked through the challenges that the global pandemic continued to present.

As Members will be aware, following the 2021 Supreme Court decision in Zalewski v. Adjudication Officer and WRC, Ireland and the Attorney General [2021] IESC 24 all proceedings before the WRC were paused for a period. This was to allow legislation to be enacted to bring the WRC in line with the requirements fixed by the Supreme Court. The Workplace Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 was enacted on 22 July 2021 brought about some significant changes to the process followed in the WRC which now more closely reflects the process Members will be familiar with in the NI Employment Tribunal, specifically:

• proceedings before the WRC are now held in public;
• parties’ names now appear on the WRC list of upcoming hearings;
• WRC decisions are now published with the names of the parties included; and
• evidence in proceedings before the WRC should be given on oath.

Key aspects of the report include:

Conciliation, Advisory and Mediation Services

The WRC has traditionally relied on face-to- face interaction between the parties to mediation and conciliation. Whilst the pandemic resulted in a move towards online platforms, the report identified that technical difficulties, and variable broadband quality of some attendees, was an undesirable burden in the negotiation process. For these reasons the WRC has expressed its intention to return predominantly to face-to-face engagement.

Conciliation

According to the report the demand for conciliation services remained the same as it had been in 2020 (689 requests for conciliation services.)

Pay issues (44%) and organisational structures/hours of work and change in work practices (20%) made up over half of conciliation referrals. Industrial relations issues (24%) also consisted of a significant portion of referrals.

Inspection and Enforcement

In addition to its other services, the WRC conducts inspections to ensure employers are complying with their obligations under employment legislation. Inspections are generally carried out sectors where the risk of non-compliance has been identified or where previous non-compliance was detected.

Throughout 2020 4,432 cases were completed of which 61% were unannounced. 57 joint inspections were carried out with An Garda Síochána and other regulatory bodies.

Adjudication Services

Over the course of 2021 over 5,993 applications were made to the WRC which included 12,014 individual complaints.

The majority of specific complaints were in relation to pay (3,009) while complaints related to redundancy dropped to 571 compared to 3,894 the previous year.

1,596 complaints were received in relation to discrimination/equality/equal status, a marked increase compared to the previous year. Complaints on grounds of disability increased by almost 300%, and complaints on grounds of family status almost doubled. Race complaints now also account for a significant portion of referrals.

Hearings

A total of 3,320 adjudication hearings were held between 1 January – 31 December 2021; this compares to 1,899 hearings held in 2020. Of these hearings only 90 were conducted in person with the remainder conducted remotely.

The WRC received 2,216 postponement requests of which 1,421 (64%) were granted. Many of these related to requests arising from pre-booked holidays, witnesses’ unavailability, and long-term illness. The WRC plans to review the process in 2022 in conjunction with exploring the possibility of offering parties longer lead-in times to hearings.

IHREC Annual Report 2021

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has also published its Annual Report 2021 which can be found at:

https://www.ihrec.ie/app/uploads/2022/07/IHREC_2021_AR_English_FA.pdf

Highlights of the report include:

The Commission received 1811 individual queries, compared to 1,732 in the previous year;

Disability discrimination remains highest area of public contact representing 46% of contacts related to services and 36% of contacts related to employment;

Of the public queries made to the Commission:

• The top three public concerns related to the Equal Status Acts, focused on discrimination on the grounds of disability (46%), housing assistance (16%) and race (13%). This reflects the findings in the WRC report, including that complaints on grounds of disability increased by almost 300%;
• The top three public concerns under the Employment Equality Acts focused on discrimination in employment and job seeking on the grounds of disability (34%), gender (25%) and the race ground (14%).

The Commission also concluded what it described as “an unprecedented” 33 Equality Reviews, including 31 with all local authorities in the country on the provision of Traveller Specific Accommodation.

Employment Permits

The Employment Permits system operates to enable highly skilled non-EEA nationals to fill roles in the labour market where demand cannot be met by the domestic labour force. On 20 June 2022, the Irish Government announced a suite of changes to the employment permits system to address skill and labour shortages across multiple sectors of the economy. The health sector has had several new roles added to the Critical Skills Occupations List in response to evidence of labour and skills shortages in the health service.

Additionally, previously imposed quotas on General Employment Permits for bricklayers, plasterers and other construction occupations have been removed. The quota of General Employment Permits for meat processing operatives has also been increased by 425.

These changes should provide some assistance to employers addressing labour and skills shortages in the relevant sectors of health, construction and agri-food.