Gainful employment

Ronnie Neville and Susan Battye are chair and vice-chair respectively of the Law Society’s Employment and Equality Law Committee. The Gazette gets promptly fired.

The focus of the Employment and Equality Law Committee is on the constantly evolving landscape of the world of work, such as developments in worker status, employment rights and regulation, the use of AI, and remote and hybrid work.

Over recent months, the committee was preparing for a WRC stakeholders’ meeting, working on updates for the profession, and focusing on pre-Budget submissions.

The committee serves as a bridge between the legal profession, statutory bodies, and the public, providing expert analysis, insights, and contributions from its members on the rapidly evolving landscape of workplace rights.

Its work is essential in ensuring that solicitors are fully briefed on complex legal developments, such as those arising from implementation of local and European legislation.

By reviewing proposed legislation and offering technical submissions, the committee helps to shape employment law. “As a committee, we often have an opportunity to engage with Government and with government bodies to share our views on draft legislation, and we can offer our views as practitioners on both sides of the fence, both employer and employee,” notes Ronnie.

Similarly, it can offer views and offer constructive feedback to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and Labour Court.

“Along with the public, we are the users of the WRC services, and of the Labour Court services,” he says.

“We have stakeholder meetings with the WRC on an annual basis, and we can highlight the live issues that legal practitioners on both sides of the fence are finding using their services,” Ronnie explains.

Best practice

Beyond its legislative influence, the committee plays a cornerstone role in professional development and the promotion of best practices within the legal community.

It provides solicitors with highly useful template documents, guidance notes, and precedents covering key workplace legislation.

Both Ronnie and Susan remarked on how enhanced press coverage of decisions by the WRC and Labour Court has increased awareness of employment law, which has been positive for society.

The committee must also grapple with the breakneck pace of change in the world of work in practice. As ways of working change, so too do the issues and complexities that employment lawyers need to resolve.

Last November’s webinar, ‘Employment law for everyone’, sought to reach general practitioners, so they are more familiar with, and comfortable advising on, the more common employment-law workstreams.

The committee’s goal is to assist practitioners to become better equipped for employment-law work, with access to all available resources and market-practice information on the basics.

The first webinar in this series offered detailed materials on how to provide employment-law advice and where to find the resources for advising on key issues, such as precedent templates and general discussion on the most common employment-law workstreams.

With the training tools at the disposal of the committee, non-specialist practitioners can empower themselves to take regular instructions in what is a fast-evolving area of the law.

The webinars contribute to an overall cascading improvement in the quality of employment-law advice available in this jurisdiction.

Busier than ever

The committee has a very wide breadth, with 25 members plus secretary Geraldine Rafferty, who Ronnie and Susan praise as the committee’s backbone.

They meet eight times annually, representing a wide range of subject-matter experts, from employer organisations, such as IBEC, to worker advocates, community law centres, and those advising employers.

Because it engages regularly with the WRC and other statutory bodies, the committee can offer practical tips to practitioners on how to grapple with a range of employment-law questions. And the WRC acknowledges and welcomes this engagement.

The committee has updated practitioners on practical steps they can take to navigate WRC processes, including filing timely submissions and encouraging mediation.

In return, the WRC has taken on board useful feedback provided by the committee on practical difficulties. The committee is supportive of increased resourcing for the WRC to help it achieve its valuable objectives.

It also submitted comprehensive feedback in 2024 on the Revenue Commissioners’ draft guidelines regarding worker status following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Revenue Commissioners v Karshan (Midlands) Ltd. t/a Domino’s Pizza.

More recently, the committee prepared detailed written submissions in November 2025 as part of the public consultation by the Department of Enterprise in respect of the Platform Work Directive (EU 2024/2831). In March 2026, the committee prepared detailed submissions on the Equal Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970).

Bright future

With regard to the now ever-present issue of AI, the pair agrees that while it may somewhat streamline legal advice, it cannot replace strategic critical thinking and the human factor inherent in employment law, which is both complex and nuanced.

Employment-law advice tends to be organisation and fact-specific, the lawyers point out.

Part of the job is also preparing clients for uncertainty of outcome, which requires the key human skills of empathy and understanding.

While certain aspects of being an employment lawyer can benefit from the use of AI, there has never been a better or busier time to work in this area.

With more people working than ever before – and for longer – streamlined, consolidated employment legislation would help to give Ireland a competitive edge in a fast-changing world, the duo says.

But in the short, medium, and long term, continuing to align with the Law Society’s policies for the common good will be a central focus for the Employment and Equality Law Committee.

Mary Hallissey is a journalist at the Law Society Gazette.