Coming from SA, we have all had the experience at one point or another where someone we know or even ourselves have had to look into the labour law practices. The thing is, often people come over and one of the comments we hear is how surprised they are with regards to the difference in the culture of employment.

My husband for instance get’s a lot of flack at his company when he calls in sick and then offers to work regardless.

If you have an application that is being processed somewhere and the person who is processing the application is off work for whatever reason, your application is simply delayed, where us Saffas are used to an employment culture where is someone is off work, the rest of the office picks up what they do and their duties are either shared by the other employees or one person will take on the tasks along with theirs.

It is very mindboggling initially to come to terms with some companies who insist you don’t work overtime, where we are used to it being expected of you to put in more than what your employment contract states, to keep “earning your job”. Often it is not enough to just be really good at it.

But then, on the flip side, if you have a sick day in Ireland, the company can completely within their right, simply not pay you. When that happens, shock is the first thing that you experience, because where we come from, it is standard practice that you have a certain amount of days at least that you can take as sick leave. Pay is never a question. So we often don’t ask about this, simply because we assume that in a country that offers it’s people so much, would surely have sick leave as a standard.

So in this section, we are going to look at some of the labour laws that you are likely to encounter that are different to what you are used to in SA. We are not going to go into the entire book of the law, but will as always, share it for those of you who want to go through it.

I asked the question in our Facebook group, what labour laws that were different to what they knew in South Africa and will be going into detail on the specific laws that was mentioned by the Saffa’s as laws they found strange or were caught off guard by. That will hopefully help prepare you for when you start working here.

One would think it is, but it isn’t. A company has no obligation to pay sick leave in Ireland. It is left up to the company whether they pay sick leave or not. This is accepted as general practice here, so it might not be mentioned in the interview as the employer would assume you know this.

The employer must give you a copy of their sick leave policy in writing, so make sure you familiarize yourself with this policy.

If you go to the GP and are booked off from work due to illness, and your company does not pay sick leave, you may be able to apply for Illness benefit from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP)

There are certain conditions that you need to meet in order to apply for this benefit.

• You have to be under the age of 66.
• This benefit is based on PSRI contributions, and you therefore need to have worked for a certain period of time before you are able to receive it.

You must have at least 104 class A, E, H or P social insurance (PRSI) contributions paid since first starting work, and either one of the following:

39 weeks of PRSI contributions paid or credited in the relevant tax year, of which 13 must be paid contributions. If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, then 13 paid contributions in one of the following tax years can be used instead:

• either of the two tax years before the relevant tax year
• the last complete tax year (before the year in which your claim for Illness Benefit begins)
• the current tax year

or

• 26 weeks of PRSI contributions paid in the relevant tax year, and 26 weeks of PRSI contributions paid in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year.

The relevant tax year is the second-last complete tax year before the year in which your claim for Illness Benefit begins.

You can claim illness benefit regardless of whether your company pays you or not, but you have to submit your claim within 6 weeks of being off work.

You do NOT receive payment for the first 6 days of illness.

If your company does offer sick pay, they may ask you to sign over any illness benefit you receive to compensate them.

Whether you qualify for payment or not, you should always submit a claim for Illness Benefit when you are certified unfit for work. You may be entitled to PRSI credited contributions for each week you are ill, and these could help you qualify for future social welfare payments.

Your contract of employment should clearly state the rules on sick leave. It may:

• Limit the length of time you can get sick pay (for example, one month’s sick pay in any 12-month period)
• State that if you are sick and unavailable for work, you must contact a specified person by a certain time

It’s also a case of policy of each company as to whether they require a Medical certificate or not. Generally though, the rule is that if you are sick for more than 2 consecutive days, you need to supply one. Other than most companies in SA, it doesn’t mean that if you are off on a Friday or a Monday you need one, but if a Friday or a Monday forms part of the 2 days, that will mean you need to supply a medical certificate.

There is a limit to the amount of time Illness Benefit is paid.

• 2 years (624 payment days) if you have at least 260 weeks of social insurance contributions paid since you first started work

or

• 1 year (312 payment days) if you have between 104 and 259 weeks of social insurance contributions paid since you first started work

You should note that Illness benefit is taxable, but they take the tax by adjusting your tax band, as opposed to taking money off the amount of illness benefit you receive.

How to apply:

You must get an Illness Benefit claim form (IB1) and a medical certificate called a ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ from your family doctor (GP). You fill in the IB1 form and freepost it to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection at

Social Welfare Services,
P.O. Box 1650,
Dublin 1

Upcoming changes

The Government has approved publication of the draft Sick Leave Bill 2022. The draft Statutory Sick Pay scheme will introduce:

• Paid sick leave for up to 3 sick days per year. This is planned to increase to 5 days in 2024, 7 days in 2025 and 10 days in 2026.
• A rate of payment for statutory sick leave of 70% of normal wages to be paid by employers (up to a maximum €110 per day).
• A right for workers to take a complaint to the WRC where they are not provided with a company sick pay scheme.

To be entitled to paid sick leave under the new scheme, you must be working for your employer for at least 13 weeks. You will also need to be certified by a GP as unfit to work.

Employees Sick Pay entitlement starts as soon as the law is enacted. This is expected soon.

and they can let you go for pretty much any reason within that year

From Irishjobs.ie:

“What is the probation period at a new job?

It is akin to working on a ‘trial basis.’

Depending on the organisation, it lasts between three and 12 months. Although it sounds like a menacing term, the probationary period is really about ensuring that you are a competent employee. In most cases, all you need to do is show diligence and not turn up late every day! Yes, individual companies have high standards, but no one is expecting superhuman performance.

It can also benefit you.

If you believe the job is not what you hoped, you have the option of leaving. However, your employment contract will probably state that your position as a full-time employee is only confirmed once you complete the probationary period to a satisfactory level.”

The contract can include a probationary period and can allow for this period to be extended. The Unfair Dismissals Acts 1997–2015 will not apply if you are dismissed at an early stage in your employment while you are on probation or undergoing training, provided that:

The contract of employment is in writing
The probation or training lasts for one year or less and is specified in the contract
However, the Unfair Dismissals Acts will apply if you are dismissed due to:

Trade union membership or activity
Pregnancy-related matters
Entitlements under maternity protection, parental leave, adoptive leave or carer’s leave legislation
if your probation period is set in your contract (which it should be as a matter of law) and the period is for less than a year, the employer has the option to renew this period, as long as the overall period does not exceed the 12 months.

The following article gives a very comprehensive breakdown of what exactly is required in a probation period.

A zero hour contract is where someone works on what we know as a casual basis. There are no set working hours and in most industries in Ireland they are banned.

It is however permitted in the following circumstances:

• Work of a casual nature
• Work done in emergency situations
• Short-term relief to cover routine absences

An example of when you can have a zero hour contact is if you are on call in-case of someone not being able to be at work on short notice.The example used on citizensadvice,ie is of an emergency worker taking someone to hospital on short notice. They might then call up the person who works on a zero hour contract basis to come in for the time the other person is at the hospital.

If you get called in to come and do work in any of the above 3 situations, you have to receive at least 25% of the possible hours or 15 hours (which ever is less). That means that if they call you and say you need to come in and offer 3 hours relief, and the person is back within half an hour, they have to pay you for at least 25% of the 3 hours that you were called in for.

Your pay should be calculated as either 3 times the national minimum wage or, if applicable, 3 times the minimum hourly rate in an Employment Regulation Order (ERO).

This is how the citizensadvice website explains it:

An employee under a zero-hours contract who works less than 25% of their potential hours in any week should be compensated. The level of compensation depends on whether you got some work or none at all:

• If you got some work, your compensation should bring you up to 25% of the possible available hours or 15 hours, whichever is less.
• If you got no work, the compensation should be either for 25% of the possible available hours or for 15 hours, whichever is less.

For example, if you are required to be available for 20 hours per week, but you got no work, you would be entitled to be compensated for 15 hours or 25% of the 20 hours (that is, 5 hours), whichever is less. In this case, 5 hours is the lesser amount.

If, on the other hand, you got 3 hours’ work out of the 20, you would be compensated for 2 hours’ pay, to bring you up to 25% of the contract hours.

To calculate the minimum payment in this example, €10.50 per hour is the national minimum wage. Alternatively, you could substitute the ERO hourly rate if this applies to your job.

You got no work: (€10.50 x 3 times x 5 hours) = €157.50

You got 3 hours’ work: (€10.50 x 3 times x 2 hours) = €63.00

This minimum payment rate does not apply if you are on call.

It’s not only maternity but also paternity leave!!

There are a few types of leave available to parents in Ireland. We are familiar with maternity leave and in recent years paternity leave, but in Ireland there is also other types of leave available to parents.

The following shows the differences between the leave that is available for parents:

Parental leave is a benefit that you can make use of during the first year of the life of your baby, or during the first year after adopting.

It is a benefit that is entitled to based on the amount of PSRI contributions youhave made at that point, so it is not available to people who are working in Ireland.

Who can take parent’s leave?

Relevant parents can take parent’s leave for eligible children. A relevant parent is one of the following:

• A parent of the child
• A spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the parent of the child
• A parent of a donor-conceived child as provided for under section 5 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015
• The adopting parent or parents of a child
• The spouse, civil partner or spouse of the adopting parent of the child (if the parents have not adopted jointly).
• Each member of a married couple of the same sex, a couple that are civil partners of each other, or a cohabiting couple of the same sex

Parental leave is often taken by mothers to follow on to their maternity leave. as it is unpaid, so if you would want to make use of this, remember to budget for this.

You can take up to 26 weeks for your child under the age of 12, or in the case of a child with disability 16 years. If you have more than 1 child, it is limited to 18 weeks and you have to have a gap of at least 10 weeks between 2 periods.

If you have been employed by your company for at least a year and you need to give your employer at least 6 weeks notice that you plan on taking this leave, but if you have not been with the company for a year, there are exceptions if your child is nearing the cut off age. .

You don’t need to take this all in one go either. Many parents make use of this to help with child care. For example, some parents take half day every Friday. This enables them to then be at home every Friday for the year. Again, this is unpaid, so you will receive a bit less on your income if you make use of this.