S.I. No. 600/2017 - Industrial Relations Act 1990 (Code of Practice on Longer Working) (Declaration) Order 2017

1. The employee should make such a request in writing no less than three months from the intended retirement date to be followed up with a meeting between the employer and employee. This meeting gives both the employee an opportunity to advance the case and allowing the employer to consider it. It is important that the employee is listened to and that any decision made is on fair and objective grounds.

2. The employer’s decision should be communicated to the employee as early as practical following the meeting.

3. Should the decision be to offer a fixed-term contract post-retirement age, the period should be specified, setting out the timeframe, and the legal grounds underpinning the new contract should be made clear (i.e. fixed-term contract). It is good practice to include a reference that the decision is made solely having regard to the case being made by the employee and does not apply universally.

4. Where the decision is to refuse the request, the grounds for the decision should be set out and communicated in a meeting with the employee. This will help the employee to understand why the request has not been granted, and give the employee confidence that his/her case has been given serious consideration and that there are good grounds for refusing the request. The applicant should have recourse to an appeals mechanism, for example through the normal established grievance procedures in the organisation.

5. An employee may be accompanied to a meeting by a work colleague or union representative to discuss a request to the employer to facilitate working longer and in any appeals process around same.

GIVEN under my hand,

20 December 2017.

PAT BREEN,

Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.

The effect of this Order is to declare that the draft code of practice set out in the Schedule to this Order is a code of practice for the purposes of the

Industrial Relations Act 1990

.

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of

2

nd January

, 2018.

WHEREAS the Workplace Relations Commission has prepared, under subsection (1) of

section 42

of the

Industrial Relations Act 1990

(No. 19 of 1990), a draft code of practice around the issue of longer working, setting out best industrial relations practice in managing the engagement between employers and employees in the run up to retirement age in the employment concerned.

AND WHEREAS the Workplace Relations Commission has complied with subsection (2) of that section and has submitted the draft code of practice to the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation.

NOW THEREFORE, I, Pat Breen, Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by subsection (3) of that section and the Labour (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 1993 (

S.I. No. 18 of 1993

), the Business, Enterprise and Innovation (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) Order 2017 (

S.I. No. 569 of 2017

) hereby order as follows