Irish employment law
Employment is a central focus of our business, with around 100 lawyers in our team. Our UK practice is ‘the most highly nominated European firm’ in research conducted by Who’s Who Legal, with 14 lawyers listed in their Labour, Employment & Benefits 2017 ranking. The lawyers in our Irish practice are ranked in Chambers Europe as leaders in their field. Consistently top-ranked amongst our peers for over a decade, we advise Irish, UK and multinational clients of all sizes, and many of our partners are independently rated as leaders in the field.
Underpinning the success of any business is its people. Meeting the competitive challenges of today’s rapidly changing world can require a radical re-think of the employer/employee relationship, and co-ordinating globally mobile talent can present significant challenges. Nurturing diversity, incentivising key staff and protecting against team defections are all essential to business success.
With so many issues to contend with, our award-winning specialist employment team covers the full range of work – from day-to-day HR support through to advising on the most complex or contentious of disputes. Going far beyond just legal advice, we also support clients with a range of innovative, value-adding services including consultancy, training and flexible legal resourcing to provide senior lawyers in-house to organisations.
You can view some recent blog posts of ours below, and can view more at employment.lewissilkin.ie.
Awards & Recognition
- A pleased client describes our Irish team as ‘very knowledgeable and pragmatic’ (Chambers 2018)
- The head of the Irish team, Siobhra Rush, has been described as ‘responsive, proactive and pragmatic’ as well as ‘solution oriented’
Related items
New Employment Permits Regulations in Ireland
16 April 2019The Employment Permits (Amendment) Regulations 2019 ('the Regulations') will take effect from 22 April 2019. They will be a welcome relief in certain sectors struggling to fill roles with EEA citizens.
Dublin LS Mixer @ 6 - the in-house network you should be at!
28 March 2019Lewis Silkin was delighted to host its first Dublin LS Mixer @ 6 this month for in-house counsel working in the creative, innovative and brand centric sectors in Ireland. The mixer is an opportunity for in-house counsel to hear from Lewis Silkin on the burning issues in their industry but also (and more importantly) to network and benchmark with fellow in-house counsel.
Dublin LS Mixer @ 6 - the in-house network you should be at!
27 March 2019Lewis Silkin was delighted to host its first Dublin LS Mixer @ 6 this month for in-house counsel working in the creative, innovative and brand centric sectors in Ireland. The mixer is an opportunity for in-house counsel to hear from Lewis Silkin on the burning issues in their industry but also (and more importantly) to network and benchmark with fellow in-house counsel.
"You ate my sandwich" - monitoring employees in the workplace
22 March 2019I would never give up a meal but I certainly wouldn’t begrudge someone a taste (unless they were a sibling – that’s a different story). I would trust my fellow employees to keep their distance but if my lunch started to disappear daily I’m not sure what I would do - maybe a simple note, a lunch box with a lock, surveillance? – possibly too far but if your employer had to set up CCTV to protect your soup and sandwich, the question arises as to what level of monitoring can be undertaken by an employer and what expectation of privacy do employees have at work?
Jumping on the bandwagon – New Irish law introduced to provide security and predictability of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours
23 January 2019The President of Ireland Michael D Higgins signed the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 (“the Act”) into law last month on Christmas Day, although it is not due to come into force until the first week of March. This gives employers some time to consider the changes the Act will implement, time to update working practices, policies and contracts, and time to “jump on the bandwagon” (pun intended – see below).
Gender pay gap reporting in Ireland
05 December 2018Gender pay gap reporting laws are coming soon to Ireland.
Ireland: Recent case law on an employer’s duty of care in PTSD/psychological injury cases
27 November 2018Cases from the courts continue to emphasise the duty of care on employers to take reasonable steps to protect their employees from the reasonably foreseeable harm which may arise as a result of treatment by other employees, even where such behaviour might not amount to bullying in the workplace.
The gig economy and employment law in Ireland
19 November 2018The origins of the “gig economy” can be traced back to the worldwide recession in 2008/2009, when people began to take on shorter term freelance “gig” type roles (involving personal service) which went outside the normal parameters of the employer/employee relationship. Very quickly, internet applications to host those services and put users in touch with the service providers came into being. These applications are now called platforms. While technology has kept up with the increase of these platforms, employment law has not, particularly in Ireland.