HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Terms and conditions
Under theTerms ofEmployment (Information)Acts 1994 and 2001,all employees are entitled to receive awritten statement of their terms and conditions of employment,whichmust be pro- vided to the employeewithin twomonths of their starting date. The contract an employer offers and an employee acceptswill
govern the future employment relationship in determining the rights and duties of both parties and will prove extremely important in the event of disagreement between the parties. Acontractwill contain the terms and conditions of employ-
ment and include both explicit terms, ie those that are clearly written in the contract, and implicit terms, ie those that exist by way of practice/conduct, but are not necessarily in written format. The written statement that the employer must give to the
employee must contain the following: a) The full names of the employer and the employee b) The address of the employer in the State or, where appro- priate, of the principal place of the relevant business in the State
c) The place of work.Where there is no fixed or main place of work, the statement must specify that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places
d) The title of the job or the nature of the work for which the employee is employed
e) The date of commencement of the employee’s employment f ) For temporary contracts, the expected duration of the con- tract or, if for a fixed term, the datewhich the contract expires
g) The rate or method of calculation of the employee’s remuneration
h) The pay intervals, ie weekly,monthly payment of wages. If payment is made, for instance, on a particular date in the month or a particular day in aweek, this should be stated, ie remuneration will be paid weekly on Thursdays, or remu- neration will be paid on the 28th day of eachmonth
38 OWNER MANAGER VOL 3 ISSUE 3 2010
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AISLING IGOE, SMALL FIRMS ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE, OUTLINES EMPLOYERS’ OBLIGATIONS IN RELATION TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT AND PROVIDES ADVICE ON HOWTO RENEGOTIATE THEMWHEN NECESSARY
i) Any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (includ- ing overtime)
j) Any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave)
k) Any terms or conditions relating to: i. Incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and relating to paid sick leave.This provision includes rules relating to no- tification by the employee and medical certification of paid or unpaid sick leave, and any provisions for sick pay and rules relating to entitlement to sick pay and its calculation, or
ii. Pensions and pension schemes l) The period of noticewhich the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether the statutory minimum period of notice or higher contractual notice requirements)
m) Referencemust bemade to any collective agreementswhich directly affect the employee’s terms and conditions.
The employment contract must be signed and dated by or
on behalf of the employer.There is no statutory requirement for the contract to be signed by the employee. Employers are advised, however, to provide the contract in duplicate and request the employee to return one copy signed and dated. A copy must be retained by the employer throughout the employee’s employment and for one year after the ending of the employment.
EFFECT OF THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN
Since the onset of the recession, employers who are experienc- ing difficultieswithin their business have beingmaking changes in order to survive.One area that employers may review is the employment relationship and thismay involve changes to cur- rent terms and conditions of employment. Some employers have been quite creative by looking at all aspects of the employment relationship,which previouslymay
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