Sherlock & Co. Employment Solicitors offer our clients a diligent, professional and cost effective service when it comes to Employment Law.

Employment Law relates to issues such as:

• Unfair Dismissals
• Constructive Dismissal
• Redundancy
• Bullying and Harassment
• Equality
• Contracts of Employment
• Data, Privacy and GDPR
• Discrimination
• Disability
• Settlement Agreements
• WRC Complaints

A claim for unfair dismissal can be brought before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The WRC will examine whether the dismissal was fair, regarding notice, opportunity to respond and whether a dismissal was proportionate.

Constructive dismissal claims are usually based on one of two criteria: the contract test or the reasonableness test. In summary, the contract test determines whether the employee’s departure was caused by the employer’s breach of contract, while the reasonableness test determines whether the employer’s conduct were so unfair that the employee had no choice but to resign.
If it can be shown that “the employer is guilty of conduct that is a serious violation of the contract of employment, or that demonstrates that the employer no longer intends to be bound by one or more of the basic provisions of the contract, then the employee is entitled to treat himself discharged from any further performance,” a constructive dismissal claim might be successful.

The failure of an employer to provide pay and benefits to an employee; downgrading or demoting an employee without valid reasons or agreement; disciplinary penalty by an employer without following the agreed-upon disciplinary procedure; breach of the employer’s safety obligations; unilateral alteration of the contract, such as change of pay may be examples of unreasonable behaviour.
In most cases, an employee must have worked with his or her boss for at least 12 months before filing a lawsuit for unfair dismissal by means of constructive dismissal. Before resigning, an employee should use any available grievances or arbitration procedures. Workplace Relations Commission claims must be filed within six months of the date of termination of employment.

The Employment Law Equality Acts prohibit direct and indirect pay discrimination on the grounds of:

•  gender
• marital status
• family status
• sexual orientation
• religion
• age
• disability
• race
• and membership of the Traveller community.

When Discrimination Occurs Section 6(1) of the Employment Equality Acts provides that discrimination shall be taken to occur, where on any of the discriminatory grounds, one person is treated less favourably than another is, has been or would be treated.

The Health and Safety at Work Act specifically refers to both psychological and physical wellbeing, and there are several provisions of Irish legislation that may be applicable to occupational bullying. The courts also accepted that an employer has a clear duty of responsibility, both at common law and under the HSW Act, to take fair care to protect someone from causing emotional injury at work as a result of being threatened or intimidated by other workers if they knew or should have known that such harassment or bullying was happening.