EMPLOYER RESOURCES NEWSLETTER - january 2017

Welcome to the latest issue of the Employer Resources Newsletter, where you will find in-depth and expertly researched and written articles (courtesy of Adare Human Resource Management) covering key areas of employment law and best practice. 

If there are any specific topics you would like covered in this publication, please forward your suggestions to Thomas McDonagh of Adare Human Resources Management: tmcdonagh@adarehrm.ie.

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Newsletter Content:

• Employment Case Law – each month we review a number of interesting employment law cases and consider their implications for organisations. This month we look at Agency Workers.  Read more >>>
  
  
• Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Decisions – each month we look at and review the decisions from the WRC. This provides a valuable insight into the types of discrimination cases before the WRC and the decisions that are issued.  Read more >>> 
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• What to Keep an Eye Out For – what is new, changing, potentially changing or what you may have missed.  Read more >>>

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Did you Know?

Double Employment and Working Week

The Organisation of Working Time Act sets out that an Employee who holds more than one employment must still adhere to the provisions of the Act related to the maximum working week.  Where there is a breach of this requirement, then both the Employer and Employee are guilty of an offence.  For example, an Employee who is employed to work in a charitable organisation for 39 hours a week, and who also works a further 12 hours per week in a second evening / weekend post for another Employer will breach the Act.  Either, or both, Employer(s) could be found guilty of an offence under the Act in permitting the Employee to be employed in excess of the maximum working week. 

In order for an Employer to avoid liability in these circumstances, it must be capable of demonstrating that it could not reasonably have known that the Employee was working for another Employer, or that they could not have known the hours that the Employee had been working.  Therefore, it is recommended that Employers have in place a policy / practice requiring the Employee to seek approval to hold a second employment, and where permission is granted, to record and monitor working hours in the second employment to ensure that no breaches of the Working Time regulations have occurred.