Your Top 5 reads are here: 

1. EU AI Act: When does it actually kick in?⏰
2. Swearing bosses might boost effort, might trigger an exit 🏃
3. Retailer fined €25K for discriminating against a worker with Alzheimer's 💶
4. Employment solicitor nominated to the High Court ⚖️
5. Pay transparency: Which EU States are on the ball? 🔍

And in other news… Still fogged out on Pay Transparency? We've cleared the mist over on the Hub.  Check it out here. Need more? On-demand training from A&L Goodbody and Willis Towers Watson has you covered 😉. Watch it here.

1. Case Law Reviews
2. AI and Employment Law
3. Skill Builder for HR: Workplace Coaching Skills
4. Pay Transparency
5. Key update on miscarriage leave in Ireland
6. Employment Equality
7. Cybersecurity
8. Recruitment
9. WRC adjudication officers bring High Court challenge over pay award
10. Ireland above EU average for remote working
11. WRC Annual Report 2025
12. Just In Case You Missed It....
13. HR Developments
14. Employment News in the Media
15. Health and Safety Developments
16. Friends of Legal Island
17. Free Webinars This Month 

Jasch Asher v Price Waterhouse Coopers ADJ-00058231

Summary: Unauthorised overseas working justified termination for breach of contract.

Practical Guidance for Employers: 

Employers should:

• Ensure that remote-working and overseas-working rules were clearly recorded in contracts and policies. Hybrid working should not be left informal. The place of work, office-attendance expectations, approval requirements and maximum permitted overseas-working days should be set out expressly.
  
  
• Note that where an employee was suspected of working abroad without permission, the employer should investigate carefully before acting. Access-card records, IT/IP data, communications and meeting attendance should be gathered and put to the employee. The employee should be given a fair chance to explain, confirm their location, produce any alleged approval, and return to the contractual place of work.
  
  
• Separate the working-location issue from any grievance raised by the employee. If the employee alleged bullying, harassment or stress, the employer should offer to investigate that under the relevant policy, but that did not necessarily excuse refusal to comply with contractual attendance requirements. 
  

Read the full Review here.

Martina Griffin v The Mucky Duck Limited ADJ-00063209

Summary: Late TUPE notification and unpaid annual leave resulted in employer liability.

Practical Guidance for Employers: 

Employers should:

• Ensure any business transfer identifies employees early and complies with Regulation 8. Where no employee representatives exist, each employee should receive written information (where practicable, at least 30 days before the transfer and otherwise in good time). The notice should address the transfer date, reasons, legal and economic implications, and any proposed measures. Late commercial negotiations will not excuse non-compliance.
  
  
• Not assume that accrued annual leave liabilities can simply be passed to an incoming operator. Any agreement between transferor and transferee should allocate liability, but private arrangements should not leave employees uncertain or unpaid.
  
  
• Attend WRC hearings and produce where required payroll records, leave calculations, consultation notices, and transfer documentation.
  

Read the full Review here.
 
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These case reviews were written by Patrick Barrett BL.

Patrick's legal education is robust, beginning with a BCL Law Degree from University College Cork (2012-2016), followed by an LL.M in Business Law from the same institution (2016-2017), and culminating in a Barrister-at-Law Degree from The Honorable Society of King’s Inns in Dublin (2019-2021). He has extensive experience on the South-West Circuit, handling Civil, Family, and Criminal Law cases, as well as advising the Citizen Advice Service.  He has worked as an employment consultant, dealing with workplace investigations and bankruptcy procedures.

Remember: Our Irish case law reviews are now held in our case law section on our fully-searchable employment law hub website.

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The EU AI Act - when does it become enforceable now?

The Digital Omnibus on AI (AI Omnibus) has now been published in the EU’s statute book. This pushes back some of the application dates for the AI Act. So, what’s applicable now and when will the rest become applicable? This article from Norton Rose Fulbright gives an overview of key dates to be aware of and a timeline of when the obligations now become enforceable.

AI Office of Ireland established under the AI Regulation Bill 2026, Paul Byrne appointed as CEO

Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke TD and Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation, Niamh Smyth TD have welcomed the appointment of Paul Byrne as the first Chief Executive Officer of Oifig IS na hÉireann (the AI Office of Ireland) established under the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026, which was signed into law by President Connolly on the 21st of July. Read more.

Why workers are using AI to take on their employers

According to research, fewer than one in 10 workers in the UK who experienced conflict took formal action of any kind, and fewer than one in 200 brought a tribunal claim. Employment lawyers in the UK estimate that AI-drafted content now features in virtually every tribunal case they see, while firms acting for employers describe grievances quoting legal principles at length. The situation in Ireland is similar. The WR received just over 10,500 complaint applications in 2025, a rise of 44% on the previous year, while the number of decisions it issued fell. Ronan Carbery from University College, Cork looks at how AI is affecting workplace grievances in this article for RTÉ. 

Do you have an AI generated grievance sitting on your desk?

This very topic will be explored at our Annual Review of Employment Law on 26th November! Bríd Nic Suibhne, Partner, A&L Goodbody LLP and Andrea O Neill, Founder, ACON Resolutions will look at the growing impact of AI-generated employment grievances, which are increasingly complex and often contain irrelevant or inaccurate legal content, and the potential need for alternative dispute resolution as their use continues to rise. See the full programme here. 

AI for HR Weekly Podcast with Barry Phillips 🎙️

Hub subscribers are beginning to request that our Chairman, Barry covers a particular AI topic in a future podcast. If you have a request, send it to him directly at barry@legal-island.com - he’ll feel like a DJ from the 80s…...🎧

You can tune into the latest episode right here - or, if you’re on the move, why not take us with you?

Listen on all major platforms: 🎧 Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Simply search for “AI for HR Weekly Podcast” and enjoy expert insights anytime, anywhere.

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EU Pay Transparency: Member States Near Transposition Finish Line

EU Member States’ uneven adoption and implementation of Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency is forcing employers operating in multiple EU jurisdictions to track national developments closely.

By the 7 June 2026 deadline only Italy, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovakia completed transposition of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. Greece recently finalised its transposition.

Importantly, while timelines have slipped, governments across Europe continue to advance draft legislation. In addition, public consultations have concluded in many jurisdictions, and a number of countries appear to be entering the final stages of their legislative processes.

For multinational employers, this means the compliance landscape continues to evolve rapidly.

Read more from L&E Global. 

Have you seen all our Pay Transparency resources on our Employment Law Hub? Check out all the recent articles highlighted in our Just In Case You Missed IT section below.......

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Rachel Coady, Associate at Eversheds Sutherland provides an overview of the proposed Pregnancy Loss Leave Bill in this article.

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49 years ago on 27 July 1977, Michael O’Leary signed the order bringing the Employment Equality Act (1977) into operation from 1 July 1977 with equal pay for women. At the time an Irish Times opinion poll said only 10% of people felt women’s rights were a general election issue. Read the LinkedIn post by Dr Bill Holohan SC here. 

Event: Employment Equality Update 2026 

Interested in employment equality law? Join Ireland's only dedicated employment equality event on 20th & 21st October online and gain expert analysis of the latest legal developments, recent case law and emerging issues shaping Irish workplaces in 2026. We've got an impressive line of speakers including Mr Justice Oisin Quinn, Cliona Kimber SC, Cathal McGreal BL and many more......

More details here.

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Two-thirds of Irish businesses hit by cyber-attacks in past year

Almost two-thirds of Irish businesses have been targeted by cyber-attacks over the past year, with many suffering multiple attacks that have led to legal costs, lost revenue and disruption to customers, according to new research. A survey of 250 Irish businesses carried out by insurance broker Gallagher in partnership with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found that 66% of organisations experienced at least one cyber-attack in the last 12 months. More than one-third reported being targeted more than three times during the same period. Business Plus has more on this story.

EU Commission publishes Cybersecurity and AI Action Plan

On 7 July 2026, the European Commission published an Action Plan on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The Action Plan sets out a structured response to address the risks and harness the opportunities of advanced AI models for cybersecurity. Read Matheson's analysis of it here. 

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EU set to miss ICT employment targets as hiring of non-EU talent intensifies

Europe is set to fall 5 million jobs short of its Digital Decade target of having 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists in employment in the EU by 2030, despite employment in the sector growing fast – with an annual growth rate of 7-8% compared with an overall employment growth rate of just over 1%. Education and vocational education and training (VET) systems are failing to meet current and projected employment demand in most Member States. As a result, labour migration from non-EU countries has become a primary driver for recruitment in the sector. Eurofound has more.

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Twelve Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudication officers have launched High Court proceedings against the State over the failure to implement a pay award.

The civil servants are taking legal action against the minister for public expenditure and the minister for enterprise, tourism and employment, seeking to enforce an arbitration award that would upgrade them from assistant principal to assistant principal higher.

Irish Legal News has more.

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According to the study from EU Agency Eurofound, Ireland is ahead of the EU average of 20% and has experienced a 20 percentage point increase in remote working between 2015 and 2024. Luxembourg leads the way on 41%, followed closely by the Netherlands and Sweden. RTÉ has more.

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The Employment and Immigration team at Philip Lee LLP have reviewed the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Annual Report and the latest figures published at the end of April 2026 for 2025 to provide some useful insights for employers:

• In 2025, the WRC received over 10,500 complaint applications, representing more than 19,000 individual complaints. That’s a 44% increase in applications and a 28% increase in specific complaints compared with the previous year.
• The highest category of complaints were 5k pay-related issues accounting for 26% of complaints.
  

You can read more here.

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The Employment Law Hub is a comprehensive, jurisdiction-specific resource designed for HR professionals, legal advisors, and business leaders. It centralises essential employment law and HR updates, expertly curated and written by leading HR and legal specialists to provide reliable, practical, and authoritative insights. We have over 700+ in depth articles and 1000+ case law reviews. As a subscriber, you have access to all of this. Check it out the full Hub here and below are some recent articles you may have missed.....

Looking for guidance on Pay Transparency? Check out the range of articles available on our Hub:

EU Pay Transparency Directive – where are we now and what should employers be doing?

Kate Field, Partner at Addleshaw Goddard LLP responds to frequently asked questions raised recently by clients in preparation for the 7 June deadline. Read it here. 

Pay Transparency – getting ready for what’s coming: How do I handle it?

Jennifer Cashman, Partner and Head of Employment Group, RDJ LLP looks at the impact of the delay and how emploeyrs should be handling it here. 

Check out the full range of articles on this topic here.

Need more? We've got just the thing.......

On Demand Training - Pay Transparency: Action Plan for HR

In this practical on-demand training course, employment law experts from A&L Goodbody LLP and a senior Work & Rewards specialist from Willis Towers Watson explain the key provisions of the Directive, what they mean in practice for Irish employers, and how organisations can begin preparing for compliance. See more details on this training here. 

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A sweary boss might make you work harder (or want to quit)

You may have worked with one (or be one) yourself. The team leader who likes to pepper a pep talk with spicy language, or the manager who uses swear words to express themselves in the clearest possible terms. How colleagues respond to colourful language varies. Some might enjoy it, while others are unbothered. It can also be considered a sign of poor leadership, unprofessional – and simply unnecessary. Research suggests people’s reactions to a sweary boss depend not only on what is being said, but also on who is listening and where they live. More from the Conversation.

How much impact does the onboarding process have on job commitment?

For some employees, organisational loyalty can begin as early as the first few weeks when you are just finding your feet. Silicon Republic has more. 

Great leaders know which emotions their feedback will trigger

Across more than a decade of research on learning from errors, we have found a consistent pattern: people do not learn from errors simply because they receive feedback. Whether mistakes become learning opportunities depends largely on the emotional response they trigger, which determines whether people learn or shut down. This article from Harvard Business Review explains how.

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The Irish Times reports a retailer has been directed to pay €25,000 in compensation for disability discrimination to a worker with Alzheimer’s whose career ended after a manager said he “noticed a deterioration” and put him on sick leave. The WRC ruled the man’s former employer, an unidentified “large retail store” in the midlands, failed to afford the worker reasonable accommodation for his disability in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998.

A former State agency communications officer was questioned about his political affiliations on his first day on the job when a manager found out he was a native Irish speaker, a tribunal has heard. The worker, Seanán Ó Coistín, said he was asked directly by the manager at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland: "Are you a member of Sinn Féin?" He said it was one of a series of "microaggressions against the first official language" he experienced over the two years he worked at the FSAI. RTÉ has more on this.

Dublin Bus has launched a driver recruitment campaign targeted at women looking for flexible or part-time work. The company says only 8% of bus drivers are women, so they are offering part-time roles, requiring just two days a week commitment, to try to increase the number of female drivers. More from RTÉ.

Spain's High Court ordered H&M to immediately halt daily bag inspections of last-shift workers and monthly random ‌locker searches, ruling on Monday that they violated employees' privacy rights. The court, ruling on a lawsuit brought by trade unions UGT and CCOO, found H&M failed to ⁠prove losses from employee theft justified the intrusive controls. Reuters has more.

The Irish Times reports staff waited nearly two years to get their split of over €5,000 in customer gratuities from a tap-to-tip machine installed at a Limerick City cafe in unexplained circumstances, a tribunal has heard. At the WRC, both the former manager of Esquires Coffee Limerick and the proprietor of the business denied responsibility for the installation of the electronic tip machine.

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Teachers took over 3,400 days of leave in two years after assaults at work

Figures from the Department of Education show that 1,724 days were lost in the 2024/2025 school year because of attacks on teaching staff. A further 1,689 were logged in the 2025/2026 school year up until the end of May with figures for June still unavailable. The Journal has more on this story.

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Séamus Given nominated to the High Court

Séamus Given, Partner in Arthur Cox's Employment Law Group, has been nominated by the Government for appointment as a Judge of the High Court by the President of Ireland. He has more than 40 years’ experience in advising on all aspects of employment law and industrial relations law.

Congratulations from Legal Island! 🎉

More on this here.

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Missed our webinar? Catch up on demand: New Rules on Retirement Age, What Employers Need to Know

Ireland's new contractual retirement age framework is now in force, bringing significant changes for employers.

In this webinar, Laura McKee from Legal Island is joined by Anne O'Connell of Anne O'Connell Solicitors to explain what the new rules mean in practice, including retirement procedures, employee requests to work beyond retirement age, and the steps employers should take now.

Watch the recording HERE.

Check out previous discussions:
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