Ireland’s employment rights frameworks are horizontal, meaning that any statutory employment right must protect all workers and cannot discriminate on a sectoral or other basis, such as where a person lives.
Ireland has a comprehensive body of employment legislation, in respect of which the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is mandated to secure compliance, and we have a strong track record when it comes to protecting the rights of workers. Ireland’s employment rights legislation protects all employees who are legally employed on a contract of service basis.
When selecting employees for lay off or short-time working, employers must apply the same criteria for selection as for redundancy. The criteria should be reasonable and applied fairly.
Under employment equality legislation selection for lay-off must not discriminate against employees on any of the 9 grounds. Any worker who feels they have been treated unfairly may pursue their case with the WRC.
Similarly, any workers who feel they have been unfairly dismissed can pursue a case with the WRC under various pieces of legislation such as; the Unfair Dismissals Act or Protection of Employees Acts for Fixed-Term and Part-Time workers.
A complaint or multiple complaints can be submitted to the WRC by completing the online form available from on the WRC website at www.workplacerelations.ie.
The WRC Information & Customer Service centre can also be contacted at 1890 80 80 90.