Irish employers have been warned that they face legal, business and reputational risk if they are not in compliance with looming protective leave legislation.

A round-table discussion on work-life integration at William Fry in Dublin yesterday concluded that employers will need to scrutinise the upcoming Irish legislation to ensure compliance.

Under new legislation which came into effect at the start of the month, the amount of parental leave per child has increased from 18 weeks to 22 weeks.

Increase

In September 2020, this entitlement will increase to 26 weeks.

The age to which the parental leaves applies has also been increased to 12.

The EU also recently approved a Directive on Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers.

Impact

William Fry employment and benefits partner Alicia Compton noted: “The most significant impact of this development from an Irish perspective will be the introduction of the right of parents and carers to request flexible working arrangements.

“Ireland will need to introduce legislative changes to put structure around the application process and the extent to which an employee may have the right to enforce a reasonable request for flexible working arrangements.”

Senior associate Ben Conway added: “We would advise all Irish employers to introduce a flexible working policy if they do not already have one in place.

Requests

“A robust policy should clearly outline how requests for flexible working arrangements will operate in practice. We recommend that employers consider any request in a reasonable and consistent manner before making a final decision.”

The Government has said that it will introduce a Parental Leave and Benefit Bill 2019 which will make provision for two weeks of parental leave benefit (to be increased to seven weeks) within the first year of their child's life.

This will be separate and additional to any maternity, adoptive or paternity benefit.

A breach of the Parental Leave Acts 1998 (and 2019) could result in employers having to pay impacted employees’ compensation of up to 20 weeks' remuneration.