Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018

Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018

Commonly known as Banded Hours Bill

President signed into law on 25th December 2018.

Will come into effect from first week in March 2019. WRC will be doing information campaigns for both employees and employers from January.

Section 20 tabled by Willie O’Dea that sought to address bogus self employment by defining in detail what it is to be self employed has been removed – the Minister indicated that the “Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection recently commenced hearings on this very issue and has indicated that it intends to examine the issue in a comprehensive manner with a wide range of stakeholders.”

Key Areas of the Bill:

• Where they have worked an average number of hours over the previous 12-month reference period, they will be entitled to be placed on a band of hours that reflects
• Employers are also obliged to state the expected duration of the contract and whether the contract is temporary or fixed term on or before the fifth day of employment
• 4 weeks – the time within which an employer must respond to an employee’s request to be placed on a band of hours.
• Offence Provision: class A fine up to €5000 or imprisonment not exceeding 12 months, or both
• An employer shall provide employees with a written statement containing the following five core terms of employment within five days of the commencement of employment; the full names of the employer and the employee; the address of the employer; the duration of the contract, where temporary or fixed term; the rate or method of calculation of the employee’s pay; and the number of hours the employer reasonably expects the employee to work on a daily and weekly basis
• An employee must remain in the employment for one month before he or she is entitled to seek redress
• New minimum payment of three times the hourly rate of the national minimum wage or three times the minimum rate set down in an employment regulation order, ERO, to compensate workers if they are called into work but do not receive the expected hours of work

Table detailing “Bands of Weekly Working Hours”