There are huge similarities between Irish law and UK law, which is to be expected as the Irish legal system originates from the English legal System. The Irish legal system exists in a common law jurisdiction, as opposed to a civil law jurisdictions like France and other European countries.
Other common law jurisdictions include the legal systems in England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and India.
Common law systems place great reliance on previous decisions in Court, which decisions set precedents for principles to be applied in later cases with similar circumstances.
Consequently, Irish employment law and English employment law are strongly comparable.
However, there is differences, too. Let’s take a look:
- Minimum wage rates are different
- Rest break entitlements also differ
- Mandatory pension-mandatory enrolment of an employee in a pension is not the position in Ireland, whereas it is in the UK
- Statutory sick pay exists in the UK, but there is no statutory sick pay in Ireland (there may be a contractual entitlement, however)
- Annual leave entitlements are different
- There is no award upper limit for discrimination in the UK, there is a limit of 2 years’ remuneration in Ireland
- Minimum notice-there is slight differences, depending on the length of service
- Redundancy payment entitlements are different-in the UK regard is had for the age of the employee, in Ireland it is calculated on service alone
- Unfair dismissal-in Ireland you need only 1 year’s service, whereas in the UK you need 2 years’ service to bring a claim
- Termination payments are taxed differently
- Whistle blowing-there is no upper limit on the award in the UK, in Ireland the limit is 5 years’ remuneration
- settlement/compromise agreements-there is no statutory recognition in Ireland, there is in the UK
- Working time-maximum working week (48 hours) can be opted out of in the UK, but not in Ireland
- Agency workers in Ireland have protection from no less favourable treatment from day one, whereas in the UK the worker needs to have worked 12 weeks on assignment
- Collective bargaining-there is no obligation on an Irish employer to recognise the trade union in the workplace for bargaining purposes; in the UK the union can follow a statutory route to seek recognition
- Status of employment-in Ireland you can be an employee or self employed contractor; in the UK you can be an employee, or self employed, or a worker
- Employment claims-there is no preliminary case management procedure in Ireland; there is in the UK
- Injunctions-employees seeking injunctions in Ireland are much more likely to succeed than in a UK court
- TUPE-in Ireland the employer gets a better deal in relation to the application of TUPE regulations as the triggering of TUPE is more limiting as the transfer must involve the transfer of significant tangible or intangible assets or employees
Conclusion
On balance, I think it is fair to say that UK employers would find the employment law landscape in Ireland a more favourable one to employees than exists in the UK. UK employers may also find a higher level of expectation and empowerment with the Irish employee when it comes to employment rights and the relationship between employer and employee.