William Fry event highlights compliance challenges facing Irish employers in 2022
Irish employers should align any compulsory retirement age in
their employment contracts with the State pension age to ensure
there is no gap between the time a person must stop working and
when their State pension begins. That was the consensus at a
William Fry LLP (William Fry) virtual conference this morning
attended by over 200 in-house legal counsel from across
Ireland.
Attendees at William Fry's CounselConnect conference heard that
a small but growing number of employers have already aligned their
compulsory retirement age with the State pension age to address
this gap. Alternatively, more and more employers are simply
choosing not to include a mandatory retirement age in their
employment contracts due to the difficulty with proving an
objective justification for a mandatory retirement age.
Ciara McLoughlin, a Senior Associate in
our Employment & Benefits department,
noted: "Irish businesses who wish to include a
compulsory retirement age in their employment contracts would be
permitted to do so if the government enacts legislation recommended
by the Commission on Pensions. However, employers would need to be
able to provide evidence that having a compulsory retirement age is
objectively justified."
Attendees also heard from Peter Cosgrove of Futurewise who spoke about the changing
nature of work during COVID-19. Despite the recent uncertainty, he
stressed that that employers need to realise that getting people
back into the office or redesigning office space will not lead to
change on its own, employers need to think how management can
encourage behavioural changes and not just expect them to
happen.
Peter expanded by saying: "Employers need to continue
to communicate to their employees and get feedback on their
experiences so far. They need to let their employee know that this
is a transition phase and not the way work will be forever. With
any experimentation it is about iterating and changing things,
therefore empower your employees to see how the office can work at
its best for them."
The half day conference also covered a number of other topics
including:
- Class actions in Ireland
- Cross border disputes: Recognition & Enforcement of Judgments
- Retirement Ages
- Sustainability reporting
- The Covid Act, and
- Top Ten Regulatory Takeaways from 2021
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
