Know Your Rights: Privacy at work

You have the right to privacy at your workplace, but there are legitimate circumstances where your privacy may be limited by your employer. Your employer is obliged to make you aware of any infringements of your right to privacy, for example, within your terms of employment or in your staff handbook. Any encroachment on your right to privacy must be for a legitimate and reasonable purpose, be clearly explained and respect data protection law.

For example, an employer is entitled to use closed circuit television (CCTV) in the workplace. However, there must be good reasons for its use, such as preventing theft or protecting staff from harm, and it cannot be placed in areas where a person would expect total privacy, such as changing rooms or toilets.

These reasons must be made clear to staff and it is best practice for employers to reach agreement with staff on the use of CCTV before installation. Once installed, CCTV can only be used for its stated purpose. For example, if it was officially installed to monitor theft, it cannot be used for monitoring attendance. In addition, your employer is obliged by data protection law to ensure the images taken are not inappropriately accessed, and that there is a system in place for you to access images on request.

These principles apply to other areas of privacy, such as searches, telephone and internet monitoring, and
recording attendance. If you feel your privacy in work has been threatened, you should consider these
principles:

What is the proposed system required for and is it justified?
Is there an equally effective system that does not affect privacy?
Have employees been properly informed about the new system before it is put in place?
Was the system, and its purpose, clearly communicated to new employees and reflected in their contract and staff handbook?
Does the system comply with data protection law, including the safe keeping of information about employees?
Is the system actually being used for its stated purpose?

For more information on protecting your privacy, and other information on human rights, visit the Irish Council for Civil Liberties Know Your Rights page http://www.knowyourrights.ie/

Out Sick? Should your employer pay.

In general an employee has no right under employment law in Ireland to be paid while on sick leave. Consequently, it is at the discretion of the employer to decide his/her own policy on sick pay and sick leave, subject to the employee’s contract or terms of employment.

Reducing Working Hours?

If your employer asks you to work fewer hours or take a pay cut, this is a change to your contract of employment. Any change to your contract of employment must be agreed by both you and your employer. When deciding whether or not to agree to working reduced hours or to a reduction in pay, there are a number of issues to be considered:

-Reduced pay – what are the implications of this – for example, your take home pay, pension contributions, Health Benefits, Benefits in Kind, Child Care etc
-Scheduling of working hours – it may suit you to reduce your hours, for example working a day less per week or 2 hours less each day.

You should ask your employer to give you written details of this proposed change to your contract of employment including a review date. You should respond to this in writing and if you are proposing to accept the change, you should stress that your acceptance is temporary. At the review date the change to your contract can be reconsidered and you could ask to return to the original terms and conditions of your contract.

One thing to remember is your entitlement to social welfare for days not worked. For example, If you are put on a three day week, providing you must have enough PRSI contributions, you would be entitled to claim Jobseekers allowance.

Enforcing your employment rights!

People working in Ireland have certain rights under employment law such as a minimum wage and annual leave. If you are not getting your rights or entitlements or if you lose your job and consider your dismissal was unfair, there are various organisations which can assist you to enforce your rights. Organisations involved in employment rights enforcement include the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Labour Relations Commission, the Rights Commissioner Service and the Equality Tribunal and the Labour Court.

Where you make a complaint to enforce one of your employment rights depends on the employment law it comes under. For example, your annual leave entitlement is set out under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.

Some employment legislation prohibits employers from victimising or penalising employees who try to enforce or are enforcing their rights given by the legislation. Victimisation could mean less favourable treatment or dismissal.

If you have a complaint about entitlements such as annual leave, public holidays, hours of work, maternity leave, carer’s leave, adoptive leave, parental leave, you should apply to the Rights Commissioner Service.

If you are claiming unfair dismissal you should apply to the Rights Commissioner Service if you and your employer agree. If either of you objects to a Rights Commissioner hearing you should apply to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

If there is a dispute about redundancy or if you do not get your minimum notice entitlement you may bring a claim to the Employment Appeals Tribunal

If you have a complaint about discrimination in employment you should apply to the Equality Tribunal on form EE.1

If you need information about employment law and your employment rights you should contact the NERA Information Service.

If you have any comments or queries please use the comments or email link below or visit our website @ http://www.cops.ie/

Losingyourjob.ie

Losingyourjob.ie is essential for all those either currently unemployed or soon to be unemployed. The site provides invaluable information on the following topics

-Reduced Hours of Pay
-Leaving Work
-Getting Social welfare
-Money & Tax Issues
-Help with your Rent or Mortgage
-Options for Education and Training
-Going Back to Work
- Leaving Ireland

I have reviewed all sections of this site, and highly recommend you forward details to all your friends and colleagues regardless of their situation, we all should be aware, and know what options are available to us and what our rights are.

Please leave your queries or comments using the comments link below.

What should my Contract of Employment Include?

The Terms of Employment (Information) Acts 1994 and 2001 provide that an employer is obliged to provide an employee with a written statement of terms of employment within the first two months of the commencement of employment.

The statement of terms must include the following information:

-The full name of employer and employee
-The address of the employer
-The place of work
-The title of job or nature of work
-The date the employment started
-If the contract is temporary, the expected duration of the contract
-If the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the details
-Details of rest periods and breaks as required by law
-*The rate of pay or method of calculation of pay
-The pay reference period for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000
-*Pay intervals
-*Hours of work
-*That the employee has the right to ask the employer for a written statement of his/her average hourly rate of pay as provided for in the National Minimum Wage Act 2000
-*Details of paid leave
-*Sick pay and pension (if any)
-*Period of notice to be given by employer or employee
-*Details of any collective agreements that may affect the employee’s terms of employment

Do i have a Contract of Employment?

Yes. Every employee has a contract of employment. It can be a formal document, a letter of appointment or a company-union handbook or agreement. Equally, it can be an oral agreement between the employee and the employer. In most cases, a contract of employment is a mixture of all these elements. Sometimes employees are heard to say, ‘I have no contract of employment’. What they really mean is that they have no written contract of employment. Such a statement might also mean that their employer was in breach of the Terms Of Employment (Information) Acts, 1994-2001.

The Terms of Employment (Information) Acts 1994 and 2001 provide that an employer is obliged to provide an employee with a written statement of terms of employment within the first two months of the commencement of employment.

Unfair Dismissal

A dismissal is considered to be automatically unfair if the employee is dismissed for any of the following reasons:

-Membership or proposed membership of a trade union or engaging in trade union activities, whether within permitted times during work or outside of working hours
-Religious or political opinions
-Legal proceedings against an employer where an employee is a party or a witness
-Race, colour, sexual orientation, age or membership of the Traveller community
-Pregnancy, giving birth or breastfeeding or any matters connected with pregnancy or birth
-Availing of rights under legislation to maternity leave, adoptive leave, carer's leave, parental or force majeure leave
-Unfair selection for redundancy

Under the unfair dismissals legislation, redundancy is considered to be a fair ground for dismissal. However although a redundancy situation exists, you may have grounds for complaint if the manner of your selection for redundancy was unfair. You may qualify to bring a claim for unfair dismissal if you consider that you were unfairly selected for redundancy or consider that a genuine redundancy situation did not exist – see ‘How to apply’ below. Unless your employer can prove there was a genuine redundancy situation and that fair procedures were followed, your dismissal may be found to be unfair. If you make a claim for unfair dismissal, you cannot also claim redundancy.

Contract of Employment

Anyone who works for an employer in Ireland for a regular wage or salary automatically has a contract of employment, regardless of whether it is written or not. The majority of employees work under open-ended contracts of employment. In other words, the contract continues until such time as the employer or employee ends it. Many other employees however, work under fixed-term or specified-purpose contracts which are contracts which end on a specified date or when a specific task is completed.

The contract of employment will include some or all of the following elements (regardless of whether the employer and employee have specified them or not):

-The terms that the courts say are in every contract of employment. Examples include the duty of every employer to provide a safe workplace and the duty of every employee to carry out the job to the best of his/her ability. This part of the contract is occasionally referred to as "common law".

-Terms that must be part of the contract as a result of laws passed by the Dail. Examples include the right to take maternity leave. Such terms are part of the contract even if the employer and employee do not specifically include them and replace any agreement between the employer and employee not to apply the particular law. So, the statutory right to take maternity leave overrides any agreement between the employer and employee that the employee will not take maternity leave.

-Terms that the Irish Constitution states must be in every contract, for example, the right of an employee to join a trade union.

-Collective agreements
-Joint Labour Committee Regulations
-EU laws

In addition, custom and practice in a particular workplace may form part of a contract. An example would be a particular level of overtime pay for employees.