Ireland has a comprehensive body of employment, equality, and industrial relations legislation, in respect of which the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is mandated to secure compliance. Ireland’s employment rights legislation protects all employees who are legally employed on an employer-employee basis. Mechanisms exist for the determination of employment status. Where an issue arises in relation to employment status, cases are forwarded to Revenue and/or the Department of Social Protection for investigation, either solely by the recipient, or jointly with the Labour Inspectorate of the WRC. The WRC may also determine employment status as a preliminary issue at an adjudication hearing.
All employers, regardless of sector, are responsible for ensuring that their employees receive all protections afforded them under employment legislation. There is no exemption or separate category under Irish employment law for individuals working in the film, TV and audio-visual sectors. Employment rights legislation, including the National Minimum Wage, Payment of Wages, Organisation of Working Time, Employment Equality Acts, Health and Safety, Terms of Employment (Information) Act and Unfair Dismissals Act (in certain circumstances), apply horizontally across all sectors.
Work in the film, TV and audio-visual sectors is often project based. As such, workers are often hired on fixed-term contracts for the duration of a project. The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Workers) Act 2003 provides for the improvement of the quality of fixed-term work by ensuring the application of the principle of non-discrimination and provides for the establishment of a framework to prevent abuse arising from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts. The Act transposes EU Directive 1999/70/EC concerning the Framework Agreement on Fixed-term Work into Irish law.
If an employee has worked on two or more fixed term contracts, the combined duration of the contracts is limited to a maximum four years. After this, if the employer wishes the employee to continue in its employment, the contract will be deemed to be on the basis of a contract of indefinite duration unless the employer has objective grounds for renewing the contract of employment again on a fixed-term basis.
If an employee in the film, TV or audio-visual sectors has a query about their employment status or believe they may not be receiving all of the protections they are entitled to, the WRC is there to help, through the provision of information as well as an adjudication service.
