Key Legislative Developments in Employment Law from October 2015 to March 2016

The ByrneWallace Legislative Updater is a series of quarterly bulletins outlining the key developments in legislation in employment law. 

In this issue, we cover the main legislative developments from October 2015 to March 2016, including:

• The enactment of the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015,which makes a number of amendments to employment equality legislation in relation to compulsory retirement ages, discriminatory advertisements and the restriction of derogations from equality laws for religious run educational and medical institutions.
• The enactment of the Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016, which provides that convictions may be regarded as spent once certain conditions are satisfied. Where a conviction is regarded as a spent conviction, that person is not required to disclose the conviction itself or the circumstances ancillary thereto when seeking employment or entering employment, except in limited cases specified in the Act.
• The National Minimum Wage Order 2015 declared that from 1 January 2016 the national minimum hourly rate of pay for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage Acts is €9.15.
• Two Employment Regulation orders came into operation on 1 October 2015 prescribing conditions of employment for security operatives and for workers employed in the provision of cleaning and janitorial services [S.I. No. 417/2015 & S.I. No. 418/2015].

Click here to download the full Legislative Updater – April 2016. 

For further information please contact Emmet Whelan, or your usual contact in the Employment Law Team.