Employment Legislation
The area of employment law is an important concern for any new or existing business. Employers need to be compliant with Employment Law and ensure they know how to operate as a good employer and employ best practice employment opportunities in the workplace within what might be limited resources.
If you are considering setting up a new business and will be employing people, we advise you to familiarise yourself with your obligations as an employer before you commence in business. To help new and existing businesses, the Enterprise Board have produced an Employment Legislation Guide for Small and Medium Businesses which is available freely to all Westmeath businesses.
This guide gives a good overview on the main employment law issues for employers and provides detailed information on :
- Recruitment into the business and internal promotion
- Employment Contracts and General Terms of Employment
- Working Time Legislation
- Employment Equality and The Law
- The Law and Grievance Procedures
- The Law and Disciplinary Procedures
- Leave within Employment
- Pensions
- Health and Safety
The guide also provides some practical templates for employment contracts and discipline procedures that you can adopt for your situation and in addition looks at some options that would be considered best practice in dealing with employees. Please be mindful that this guide is not a definitive legal document and if you have any specific enquiry you should contact the staff at the Business Information Centre of Westmeath County Enterprise Board for further information.
For further information on 'Equality in the Workplace', contact The Equality Authority, Clonmel Street, Dublin 2 Tel : Lo Call 1890 245 545or http://www.equality.ie/.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Davitt House, 65 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 (Employment Right Section) offer a free and useful information service over the phone to employers and employees. Tel : 1890 220 222. They also provide a range of useful publications most of which can be downloaded from their website, http://www.entemp.ie/.
The National Employment Rights Authority, promotes compliance with Employment Rights Legislation. Tel : 1890 80 80 90. www.employmentrights.ie
Small Firms Assocation, Confederation House, 84/86 Lower Baggot St., Dublin 2 Tel:01-6051500 or website http://www.sfa.ie/. The SFA provide advice and assistance to employers on all aspects of employment law. The Equal Authority Clonmel Street, Dublin 2 Website: http://www.equality.ie/.
Health and Safety Authority, Temple Court, Hogan Place, Grand Canal St., Dublin 2 Website: http://www.hsa.ie/. The HSA provide detailed information on matters relating to health and safety in the workplace in addition to publicaitons and leaflets covering legislation in these areas. Tel: 01-6147000
Joint Labour Court - Joint Labour Committees are statutory bodies established to provide machinery for the fixing of minimum rates of pay and the regulation of conditions of employment. 13 Joint Labour Committees are in place and they have devised Employment Regulation Orders for various sectors. These ERO's are statutory instruments which set out terms and conditions, and fixed wage rates applying to specified workers in a particular sector. A full listing of these terms and conditions and wage rates is available at www.labourcourt.ie
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