Our Employment Group adopts a partnership approach and works very closely with chairs, chief executives, in-house counsel, HR directors and HR professionals to find practical, effective and creative solutions to both everyday and exceptional problems. We pride ourselves on having a very strong commercial approach to problem-solving. The Group is consistently top ranked in the areas of Employment / Labour Law and Industrial Relations, and is an established market leader in its field with considerable experience in advising on a vast range of complex employment issues for a wide variety of clients at both national and global levels.

We have extensive experience in dealing with every aspect of the employer – employee relationship, including:

• Strategic people issues at board/CEO level
• Employment litigation, mediation and dispute resolution
• Employment contracts, policies and handbooks
• Appointment and severance of senior executives
• Outsourcing of services
• Discrimination, equality and equal status law
• Redundancies and collective redundancies
• Immigration and employment permits
• Employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions and other commercial transactions
• High Court litigation and dismissal/non-compete/picketing injunctions
• Equal pay and gender pay gap reporting
• Employment agencies and agency workers
• Collective disputes, industrial action and trade union relations/recognition
• Health and safety
• Atypical work arrangements (part time, fixed term, job-sharing, flexible working, home-working, etc.)
• Bullying, harassment and victimisation
• Dismissals, disciplinary and performance management
• Employee benefits and pensions
• Employee privacy
• Whistleblowing/protected disclosures
• Crisis management

Relevant Experience

Due to the sensitive nature of the work involved, we do not disclose our clients’ details but examples of the types of work undertaken by the Group are as follows:

• Obtaining High Court injunctions restraining unlawful picketing by employees and their trade unions, and advising on disputes with trade unions on recognition issues and collective bargaining and claims in relation to pay and conditions
• Defending High Court injunction applications sought by employees to restrain the termination of employment and/or disciplinary action
• Defending claims for personal injury and occupational illness/stress/bullying and harassment
• Advocacy at the Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court in litigation relating to statutory employment claims, as well as industrial relations issues
• Advising on the management/processing of whistleblowing/protected disclosure investigations
• Advising on disputes on retirement and pensions issues, including age discrimination, professional added years, augmentation of benefits and early retirement
• Defending deemed employment claims
• Providing employment law advice and support on some of Ireland largest corporate transactions