Hire in Ireland

The law specifies that contracts of employment must contain certain terms and conditions which must be provided in written form. Under no circumstances should the terms of the employment contract provide for lesser conditions than any minimum legal entitlements established in Ireland’s employment legislation or by applicable collective agreement.

Probationary periods must not exceed 6 months. Any extension of such periods must not exceed 12 months and should be in the interest of the employee.

• The Organization of Working Time Act 1997 states the maximum average working week for many employees cannot exceed 48 hours. This does not mean a working week can never exceed 48 hours. Rather, it is the average that is important. For most employees the average can be calculated over a period of four months.
• A typical working week is considered to be between 35 and 40 hours, with the average in Ireland being 39 hours per week.

• If not already included in the rate of pay, an employee usually has a right to paid time off in lieu or a premium payment for work performed on Sunday.
• An employee is entitled to the premium payment for Sunday work, which should be equivalent to the payment a comparable employee in a collective agreement in force in a similar industry or sector would receive. This means the Sunday premium, if not already paid, will be equivalent to the closest applicable collective agreement which applies to the same or similar work under similar circumstances (and which provides for a Sunday premium).

Overtime is work performed outside normal working hours. Employers have no statutory requirement to pay employees for work completed in overtime. However, many employers offer higher rates of compensation for overtime. The contract of employment should state whether employees can be required to work overtime and should specify the rates of pay.

• Bonuses can be guaranteed under contract, discretionary or a combination of the two. The details of any bonus scheme should be clearly specified in the terms of the employment contract. When bonus schemes are incorporated into the employees’ contract of employment, they become terms or conditions of that employment and employees will have certain expectations. Failure to comply with a term in a contract may be found to be an unlawful action. In this case, the law provides for recourse.
• An employment contract may contain a clause stating that a contractual bonus will not be paid if employment is terminated ‘for cause.’ This includes alleged gross misconduct or if an employee is not engaged in employment on the date of payment. Most bonus schemes will state that the employers allow themselves the discretion to decide who would be eligible for a bonus, the amount payable and whether to pay any bonuses at all in a particular year. It is an implied term of any bonus scheme which is subject to an employer’s discretion must not be exercised in a manner that is irrational or perverse.
• If an employer offers a contractual bonus scheme (e.g. one guaranteed under contract), any modifications to that scheme should be made through a formal process of consultation and agreement. If an employer offers a discretionary bonus scheme, it is more likely they can change the scheme without consulting employees. To label a scheme discretionary – and then ensure that it is discretionary in practice – informs employees that the provisions may not be provided in the same way, or at all, throughout their employment. If there was cause for amending the scheme, an employer may simply exercise this discretion and then inform employees of the change. However, changes to contractual schemes require prior agreement between employer and employee.

Employers are not required to give notice if any of the following apply:

• The employee has been working for the employer for less than 13 weeks.
• The employee agrees to waive his or her right to notice.
• The employee is guilty of gross misconduct.

In order to justify a dismissal, the employer must:

• show the dismissal was in relation to at least one of the potentially fair grounds set out in the legislation.
• demonstrate that fair procedures were followed.
• be able to disprove any allegation by the employee that the case involves any of the automatically unfair reasons for dismissal.

The employer can give one or more of the following reasons for dismissal:

• Capability – This includes events such as tardiness, absenteeism and persistent absence due to illness or injury (either short-term or long-term)
• Competence – This pertains to the employee’s ability to do their job. Initially, employees must be made aware of the standards that are expected and improvement should be managed through a formal set procedure within a reasonable timeframe. Ultimately, the employer should issue a final warning setting out the likelihood of dismissal before any actual dismissal.
• Qualifications – This type of dismissal is allowed for two reasons:
  • The employee misled the employer about qualifications they had when applying for the job.
  • The employer made employee’s continued employment conditional on them obtaining further qualifications and the employee failed to achieve this after having been given a reasonable opportunity to do so.

• Conduct – As a ground for fair dismissal, the term conduct covers a large area of behavior. There is a need to distinguish between gross misconduct, which can lead to instant dismissal, and ordinary instances of misconduct.
• Redundancy – In this case, the employer will need to show a redundancy situation exists and that therefore the dismissal is fair.
• Contravening the law – Employees can be dismissed if their continued employment would mean breaking the law.

Contractual post termination restraints are generally considered to be in restraint of trade and therefore void. However, those that protect the employer’s legitimate business interests can be enforced if reasonable. Restraints need to be tailored for the specific business and the risks posed by the employee. Garden leave is a common practice applied to senior employees.

Non-competes – This is permissible in narrow, justifiable circumstances. The typical duration is no longer than three to six months, with an absolute maximum of 12 months depending on the circumstances. The geographical area must also be reasonable and not too extensive.

Customer non-solicits – These are permissible in specific circumstances. The typical duration is no longer than three to six months, with an absolute maximum of 12 months depending on the circumstances. The geographical area must also be reasonable and not too extensive.

Employee non-solicits – These are permissible but the length of restriction will depend on the circumstances.

• An employee who is being made redundant is entitled to a statutory payment, conditional on them having at least 104 weeks of continuous service in employment insurable under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 1993. They must also be over the age of 16 and in a genuine redundancy situation.
• The rate of statutory redundancy is two weeks’ pay for every year of service (for those over the age of 16) in addition to one week’s pay. This payment is limited to €600 per week. Statutory redundancy payments are exempt from tax. Any ex-gratia redundancy amount (above the legal minimum) is subject to taxation.
• If the employer company is liquidated and unable to pay the redundancy entitlements, redundant employees can seek payment from the Social Insurance Fund (maintained by the Department of Social Protection) for their statutory entitlements.
• Employees may benefit from enhanced redundancy sums by way of business customs, practices or industry norms. In practice, employers can negotiate an ex-gratia severance payment from between two to seven weeks’ pay per year of service. This may or may not be paid in addition to the statutory payment.
• Trade unions are involved in redundancy negotiations at companies with collective bargaining. There is no legal requirement to negotiate with trade unions in respect of redundancy pay. However, the practice at unionized firms is that trade unions are involved during any such talks. Theoretically works councils can perform this function as well but they are not as prevalent a feature in this process as trade unions.

A fixed-term contract can be any of the following:

• for a fixed period and will end when a specific date is reached
• for the purposes of completing a specific task and will end once the task has been completed.
• for a specific event and will terminate once the event does or does not happen.

Fixed-term employees have the right not to be treated any less favorably than comparable employees on permanent contracts. Those who have been employed on successive fixed-term contracts (e.g. they have had the contract renewed previously or have been employed on more than one contract) for four continuous years can ask their employer for a statement confirming they are permanent and are no longer on a fixed-term contract.

Employers must issue this statement or one that gives objective reasons why the contract remains fixed-term within 21 days of an employee’s request. They can keep an employee on a fixed-term contract only if they can objectively justify it at the point it was last renewed to achieve a legitimate business aim or when the period of four years has been extended under either a collective or workplace agreement. The employer must make the same tax arrangements for fixed-term employees as for permanent staff.

Salaries are normally paid monthly on a regular date at the end of the month via credit transfer to an account specified by the employee.

All employees are entitled by law to a written statement of salary showing wages and deductions at the time of payment. This statement is called a ‘payslip.’ Employers also are prohibited from making deductions from wages unless authorized by law, an employment contract or employee consent. The Payment of Wages Act obliges the employer to treat the information contained in a pay statement with confidentiality. If wages are paid by credit transfer, the statement of wages should be given to the employee as soon as possible once the credit transfer has taken place.

• In 2019, the European Court of Justice stated companies must set up a system to record the working time of their employees. Hence, employers are required to implement an objective, reliable and accessible system that allows for the recording of the daily workday performed by each employee

• Employees are entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave in addition to the nine paid public holidays. Annual leave is subject to the employer’s approval. With the agreement of both employer and employee unused leave may be carried over into the following holiday year and should be used within six months.

If a public holiday falls on a day which is not a normal working day for that business (for example, on Saturday or Sunday), employees are still entitled to benefit for that public holiday. However, they do not have any automatic legal entitlement to have the next working day off work. Where this happens, employees are entitled to either:

• a paid day off on the public holiday
• an additional day of annual leave
• an additional day’s pay
• a paid day off within a month of the public holiday

Under the Sick Leave Act 2022, employees are entitled to statutory paid sick leaves every year. The entitlement is phased in over 4 years:

• 2024 – 5 days
• 2025 – 7 days
• 2026 – 10 days

Sick days can be taken as consecutive days or non-consecutive days.

Sick pay is paid by employers at 70% of the employee’s normal pay up to a maximum of €110 a day. To be eligible for sick pay, the employee must work for the employer for at least 13 weeks and is certified by a GP as unable to work.

Employees can get sick pay if they are:

• on probation
• undergoing training (interns)
• an apprentice
• an agency worker

Both full-time and part-time employees can take 5 days of paid sick leave.

Maternity Leave

• Employees who become pregnant are entitled to take maternity leave. The entitlement to a basic period of maternity leave from employment extends to all female employees in Ireland (including casual workers), regardless of how long they have been working for the organization or the number of hours worked per week. In general, employees are entitled to 26 weeks’ maternity leave. At least 2 weeks have to be taken before the end of the week of your baby’s expected birth and at least four weeks after.
• Employers should carry out separate risk assessments when an employee is pregnant, has recently given birth or is breastfeeding. They should either remove any risks or move the employee away from them. If these options are not possible, the employee may need to take health and safety leave from work. During health and safety leave, employees receive their normal wages for the first 3 weeks. After this, they may receive Health and Safety Benefit from the DSP, depending on their PRSI contributions.
• Employees with sufficient social insurance (PRSI) contributions are entitled to paid Maternity Benefits at €274 per week. Mothers are entitled to a further 16 weeks of additional maternity leave which begins immediately after the end of maternity leave; however, this is not covered by Maternity Benefit.
• Female employees who are breastfeeding are entitled to take 1 hour off work (with pay) each day as a breastfeeding break for up to 2 years after birth.

Paternity Leave

• New parents (other than the mother of the child) are entitled to 2 weeks of paternity leave from employment following birth or adoption of a child. Paternity leave can be started at any time within the first 6 months following the birth or adoption placement. Paternity Benefit is paid at a rate of €274 per week.

Parent’s Leave

From 1st August 2024, parental leave will increase from 7 weeks to 9 weeks for children born or adopted after 1st of August 2024.

Employees can claim the additional 2 weeks’ parent’s leave, if:

• Their child is under the age of 2 on 1st August 2024, or
• Their adopted child has been placed with their family less than 2 years on 1st August 2024.

Employees must complete the extra leave on or before their child’s second birthday or within 2 years of the adoption placement.

Parent’s Benefit will also increase from 7 weeks to 9 weeks for each parent (subject to qualifying criteria).

This benefit is paid for by the state if the parent has sufficient social insurance (PRSI) contributions.

Parental Leave

Parental leave allows parents with children below 12 years old to take unpaid leave from work. Each parent can take up to 26 weeks’ parental leave for each eligible child. The employee must have worked for the employer for at least a year before they are entitled to this leave.

Leave for medical care reasons

• Employees can take unpaid leave if they need to take time off to deal with medical care for their child or other relevant persons.
• Other relevant persons include a spouse, cohabitant, parent, grandparent, sibling or housemate.
• The person must need significant care or support for a serious medical reason.
• Employees can take up to 5 days’ leave for medical care in any 12 consecutive months. Leave can be taken as single or multiple days. If half a day is taken, it will count as a full day.
• Employees do not need any minimum service with their employer to take this leave.

• Carer’s leave allows employees to leave work temporarily to provide full-time care and attention for someone who needs it.
• Carer’s leave from employment is unpaid but the employee’s job will be kept open for when they return.
• Carer’s leave can be taken for a minimum of 13 weeks and up to a maximum of 104 weeks. If an employee requests to take less than 13 weeks’ carer’s leave, the employer can refuse the request.
• If 2 people live together and both need full-time care and attention, employees can get carer’s leave for each of them. In this case, the total maximum amount of carer’s leave is 208 weeks (104 for each person in their care).
• When your carer’s leave has finished, you must wait 6 months before you can take another period of carer’s leave to care for a different person.
• To be eligible for carer’s leave, employees must have worked for their employer for 12 months without a break in employment. The person that they will be caring for must need full-time care and attention. A deciding officer of the DSP will decide whether they need this care after checking with their GP.
• Employees can apply to take carer’s leave in one continuous period of up to 104 weeks, or for a number of shorter periods that add up to a maximum of 104 weeks. If carer’s leave in one continuous period, there must be a gap of at least 6 weeks between each period of carer’s leave. The minimum period of carer’s leave that can be taken is 13 weeks. If employees apply for a period of less than 13 weeks, their employer can refuse (if they have good reason) but must explain why in writing.
• Employees should first apply to take carer’s leave to the DSP. If the DSP approve the application, employees should notify their employer by giving at least 6 weeks’ notice in writing of their intention to take carer’s leave. If the leave is approved, both the employee and employer must sign a document confirming the arrangement at least two weeks before the leave is due to start.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 provides the legal right to 5 days paid time off work for urgent and essential matters relating to domestic violence.

The domestic violence can be ongoing or have occurred in the past. The time off could be for medical visits, legal proceedings, counseling, looking for alternative accommodation or accessing domestic violence services.

Domestic violence leave is a day one right, meaning the employee doesn’t need a specific amount of continuous service to take the leave. Employees do not have to give notice to take the leave in emergency circumstances.