Employment
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Employment: Chambers Europe 2025
For our January update, we thought it would be helpful to highlight for you some themes which we expect to be key focus items for 2026.
Some of these have already been prevalent throughout 2025 and we will continue to keep you updated on any changes in these spheres as the year progresses.
Pay Transparency Directive
The EU’s highly-anticipated Pay Transparency Directive (the “Directive”) comes into force at a national level in June of this year. As you know, this will create new rights to information for employees and it will also interact heavily with the existing gender pay gap reporting regime. Unfortunately, the legislation transposing the Directive into Irish law has not yet been published and has not been listed for priority drafting in the Government’s Spring Legislative Programme. In terms of the accompanying guidance note for employers, we expect, based on our experience with the implementation of WRC/IHREC guidance, that the guidelines
(i) will not be published until the underlying legislation is finalised; and
(ii) are unlikely to be overly prescriptive in respect to how categorisation should be conducted – we anticipate the guidance will have a subjective element, rather than require a wholesale restructuring of the grade structuring of employees.
Mandatory Contractual Retirement Ages
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 (the “Act”) has been signed into law by the President. The Act requires a commencement order before it is effective, and the Irish Government has indicated that the WRC’s revised Code of Practice will be published before the Act is commenced. The Act implements a legislative framework which restricts an employer’s ability to enforce a contractual retirement age which is below the State Pension Age (currently 66), introducing new penalties for both companies and individuals involved in a breach.
If an employee is subject to a contractual retirement age which is less than the State Pension Age, they may notify their employer that they do not consent to retire at this age. The employer must not enforce the contractual retirement age unless it has provided a reasoned written reply within one month of the date of notification. The employer’s written reply must explain why the contractual retirement age is both:
(1) objectively and reasonably justifiable by a legitimate aim to enforce it; and
(2) is an appropriate and necessary means of achieving this aim.
Where an employer breaches its obligations under the Act, the WRC may require the employer to either take a specific course of action (which can include reinstatement or reengagement), or to pay compensation up to €40,000 or two years’ remuneration, whichever is greater.
Apple should be prepared to respond to notifications from any employees who are subject to a mandatory retirement age and are approaching the State Pension Age, upon commencement of the Act.
EWC Directive
On 11 December 2025, the EWC Directive was published in the EU’s Official Journal, and it became law on 31 December. This will need to be transposed into Irish law by 31 December 2027 so organisations have effectively two years to come to grips with the new requirements. As you know, we were delighted to recently extend to you an invite to join our Irish EWC network: while current meetings are planned for Dublin, we are also considering hosting London events (subject to demand) – please let us know if this would interest you.
In our latest episode of the Matheson Employment Law Podcast series, we explored the EWC Directive and the landmark Irish High Court decision in the Verizon case, as well as what these developments mean for employers. You can find this episode here.
AI in the Workplace
AI in the Workplace, and what that means for employers, continues to be a “hot topic” as we begin the new year. We are seeing increasing numbers of employees who are using AI to generate everything from grievances all the way to WRC complaint forms. In response to the recent WRC case of Oliveira v Ryanair, in which it was found that the complainant’s AI-drafted submissions contained fabricated citations, the WRC published a helpful guidance on the use of AI tools to prepare material for submission to the WRC. This serves as a helpful reminder to all parties that they are responsible for the accuracy of their submissions, and that AI should be used responsibly.
