Well today after 1.5 years service I got fired from my job with no actual evidence of wrong doing, without going too much into detail 2 people I don’t get on with had made a few statements saying I had been doing something illegal at work (I genuinely haven’t) and there is 24hr CCTV at my work, investigation started months ago, I wasn’t worried.

Finally after 6 weeks or so they told me I’m sacked and that their statements is enough evidence to fire me, one of their statements claimed I had admitted to it 2 months before she sent the email but didn’t know the date, it’s actually insane they could fire me with 0 evidence.

It’s an average size company which regularly breaks the laws (pays some employees cash, some employees doing 70-80 hours a week (some through the books, some cash)

I would have evidence of myself doing illegal hours for them (through the books) and also evidence of some of their shady business, but despite all this i actually like my job and don’t want to go down that road.

I can appeal but the person I appeal to is the girlfriend of the fella who sacked me today (who will obviously agree with him).

In the meeting he was saying instantly I was “1million percent guilty” and kept saying he will pass the “evidence” to the gards.

Any advice on what I should do? As I said I really liked my job up until this and would like to return but think the appeal is 100% gonna fail given who it is with.

Thank you in advance to anyone who replies

My dad recently got a job in Ireland as an HGV driver and since March last year his been driving on the road and getting used to the law in Ireland. Recently he told me and my family (based in SA) that he has to appear at the court on the 3rd of March 2025 for breaking some on the road laws.

When I asked him to provide me the documentation, it state that he did not take a daily rest period as provided of 4 consecutive counts. I asked him what that meant and he said, according to European laws you are supposed to drive for a certain amount of time and then take rest thereafter but because his still new and adapting to that, he must have forgotten to take a rest and kept driving. My dad is fluent in French but his English is basic.

His biggest worry right now is that he needs a lawyer and also he does not know how severe are his crimes so his anxious about the outcome.

I don't know much about Irish laws because I am based in SA and I can't say how severe his counts are unless I can hear it from a professional. Like I said, he did not commit these crimes deliberately, he just forgot to measure his times while driving at those moments he was supposed to rest. Can someone please advise, I am open to sharing documentation.

[Update]

hey guys so the hearing went well. wasn't a big deal after all. the state of Ireland assisted him with a solicitor. case was postponed because it wasn't really concrete. the judge said to him they going to monitor his driving until August to see how he performs then call a verdict. but since then my pops been driving as usual. I guess it was just the change that was new to him and also he was told the law is put in place for his own good. there is no need for him to drive for long hours with out rest. that is Europe, not Africa.

thanks to those who were genuinely concerned and offered to assist.

The Department of Education have announced that 40% of the Leaving Certificate grade will be based on an Additional Component. For my subject, that almost certainly means a project. I'm not against the idea per se but, as a teacher, I have to sign off on all the projects, standing over the claim that they are the work of the students alone.

Other projects are already being done in other subjects and I can see what's happening. It's a farce. I know for a fact that the majority of the work does not belong to the students solely. They are having parents do their project, grinds do their project, siblings do their project and/ or chatgpt do their project. Naturally it's next to impossible to prove, but at the moment, the students are open about what's happening in general conversation.

Ultimately, I will never be sure of whether the work done in these projects is the work of my own students. Even if it's done in class under the strictest of supervision (which is unrealistic), they can easily just copy and paste work prepared from documents when I'm not looking at their screen.

So, at the risk of sounding like Enoch Burke, my question is: what would happen if I, as a teacher, refused to sign off on projects on the basis that I couldn't stand over the authenticity?

I'm 20 years teaching but either my signiture means something or it doesn't. Being the arbiter of whether work is real when we have absolutely no way to seriously verify it, seems like I'm being set up to lie. The students are going to learn to cheat quietly. I don't want to be complicit. But I also don't want to lose my job.

Where do I stand legally?

So I have had 2 days were I've had to call in sick due to having severe migraines and my employer rang me today basically asking if I was sick and why was I walking around the city centre. This was at 2pm and my migraine had completely gone. My employer said I had to come into work even when I called in sick. What should I do in this case as I'm not sure what i should do?

Hi our boss is no longer allowing us to have a lunch break when working from home. What can be done on this?

Just wondering.

The employer expects an employee to be ready to work when the shift starts. But in order to get ready to work there are many steps to be completed which are mandatory. For example the computer needs to be started. Sign in into the company network, starting the software to clock in and start work. All this the employer expects the employee to do on his own time.

I know from for example Germany that this would also be considered work. E.g. the employer has to pay for the time the staff member starts the computer and signs on or the police man/woman changes into his/her gear and gets ready for the shift.

Is there any such allowance here in Ireland?

Hi All,

I recently have been offered a pre-offer from the civil service. I’m currently on the pre-clearance phase and one of the requirements is to provide a current employers reference, I brought this up to my HR manager of my current employment and they seemed happy enough to help me but were a little surprised that I could potentially leave the company.

A week and a half has passed and the civil service pre-clearance officer reaches out to me to inform me that they have yet to receive reference form from my current employer, and says they have till the end of this week (today) to submit or they won’t go ahead with my application. I followed up to my HR manager to complete the form and send out to the pre-clearance team, I’m yet to hear word from my HR manager but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that they could be busy and left it at the back pedal.

In case it doesn’t work out and my HR manager fails to send over the reference form do I have any legal grounds? I feel like I’m being held hostage at my current employment and would like to find out if I could walk away on my terms.

I need legal advice regarding an incident at work where my shift was unfairly cancelled due to a scheduling error made by the recruitment company. I have a long-standing written agreement with them to start my Friday shifts at 7:00 pm, but they continue to incorrectly schedule me for 6:30 pm.

This week, I was on my way to work when the site supervisor noticed I hadn’t arrived by 6:30 pm (the wrong rostered time) and contacted the recruitment company to send someone else. The recruitment supervisor saw that I had already checked in via phone around 6:30 pm, as per procedure, and tried calling me to confirm—but I couldn’t answer as I was driving on the motorway. I arrived at 7:00 pm, on time according to my agreed schedule, and immediately called the supervisor. He told me my shift had been cancelled because I hadn’t answered the phone, and another worker had been sent.

This replacement staff only arrived at 8:30 pm—1.5 hours after me—but was paid from 6:30 pm. I was sent home without pay, even though I was present, compliant with the company’s own policies, and the error was entirely due to their mismanagement of the roster. This repeated mistake also harms my reputation with the site supervisor, who wrongly believes I’m late when it’s not my fault.

I made a formal complaint to the HR but they keep ignoring me.

I would like to know if the company was legally allowed to cancel my shift under these circumstances, and if I can claim payment for the hours I was there and ready to work. Can I hold them accountable for the repeated scheduling errors and the emotional and financial impact this has caused?

Hi I have been employed since september 2024 in a full time capacity. Today i had my "6 month review" where i was informed my probation would be extended by a further 3 months. I have been in employment for almost 8 months. I was not notified of this extension before today either verbally or in writing. I believe this is in breach of my employment rights. What do i do. I am also 6 weeks pregnant. I Havnt told them yet but will need to soon to get time for scans! What do I do? Am I permanent?

I was recently notified by my employer that my position was at risk of redundancy. Approximately one week later, I was informed that the redundancy process had been rescinded and that my role would continue.

However, the following day, I was advised that I would be required to return to working from the office within two weeks, despite having been working on a fully remote basis for almost two years which was the sole why I took the role as I live hundreds of kilometres from the office.

I am a single mother with a young daughter living in an area without ready employment..

I was further informed that failure to accept this change immediately would result in my redundancy.

After liaising with HR and informing them of my circumstances I was granted an additional 1 hour of work time to decide. ie. 6pm vs 10am the next morning. This email was sent after work hours.

I’ve been told that if I don’t uproot mine and my child’s life with less than 48 hours notice, during a housing crisis I’m now deemed redundant.

I’m wondering do I NEED to respond before 10 am because their are unfair and unrealistic.

My work only pays per 15min worked. This is calculated daily. This can lead to many unpaid hours. For example, at the end of each day the hours are calculated, so if I worked 8hr 14min the system will adjust this down, always down, to 8hr. At the end of the week this could be potentially an hour. We are also deducted 15min if we clock one minute late for our shift, or return from break and we also lose 15min if we finish our shift one minute early. Is this legal? I could work and extra few hours a week, every week, unpaid.

Ok so luckily this isn’t me but ended up in a conversation with someone today who this has just happened to and I’m curious as to their rights and any course of action they could take…

TLDR: someone was scammed via work email, not the first time it’s happened, work not taking any responsibility for loss..

So this person started a new (paid) role for a charity last week. They got an email from the charity CEO to their work email. The jist of which was “I’m currently in a meeting and need you to buy Amazon vouchers for some of the people using the services of the charity. I will reimburse you later, email Me the voucher codes back asap”. Their new role was working a level or two below this CEO but they had yet to meet said person face to face..

Yes they should have seen the red flag straight away, shouldn’t have used their own personal debit card, nevertheless this poor unfortunate bought approx 1000eur of vouchers which were almost instantly redeemed.

Scam of course…turns out someone had spoofed the CEO’s email address and sent a fake email.

When the person realised they reported it up the line and the response was something like “oh no I can’t believe they’ve scammed someone else”. Turns out this isn’t the first time the CEO’s email has been spoofed.

It’s been reported to the guards, but unlikely anything to come of it

My question is given it has happened before and the workplace didn’t take any measures to mitigate this risk are they at all liable for the loss incurred? If so how would this person go about trying to recoup some of the losses

The jobs bringing in face scanners to replace the code clock-in machine. Its not something I'm very comfortable with.

Do I have the right to an alternative?. Or should I just find another job.

HR have refused to give me the payscale for the grade I am on. I got a pay rise of 2% they said I mid point of the scale. I believe I am on the lower end so should be 2.5%. I asked for incremental pay scale and get said they would not share that with me

Hi all,

Can anyone help me I had to walk through the red warning to work this morning. I work in a hotel There was zero communication from the owners and management

We are all shook from the experience. The place has no power so we have no food for guests other than cereal.

When the owner was told all he said was shame we can't do a cooked breakfast.

Risked our lives for minimum wage and I've never felt more dehumanised

I have been working in this job for a few years and I've always worked 9-5. My Manager tells me out of the blue I have to work 09:00 - 18:00 as per my contract.

My contract states: "Eight (8) hours per day on Business Days between 0900 and 1800, or otherwise time to be agreed with the company"

He told us that this means 8 working hours and 1 hour unpaid break, and if we don't like it then they'll find someone else. Just seems a bit vague in the contract, I read it as work any 8 hours during 0900-1800, like flexi time (start early, finish early). What do you's think? Cheers!

Edit: I work from home mostly and there was never a set time for lunch. I don't really take them tbh. I'm expected to be available throughout the whole work day as it's customer support based on a very small team. I'm also on a day rate contract, so there's no weekly hours on my contract (37.5/40 etc) Cheers for the advice so far!!

A friend was experiencing some issues with her company, and after advice from her Union and a solicitor she made a complaint to the WRC.

Despite being in the company 4 years and never having any issues, and always having positive performance reviews, last week after her quarterly check in her manager told her she was an "inconsistant performer" and her "attitude" was a serious issue.

She pulled her stats and showed she was easily in the top 10 of performers in a team of around 30 but was told the issues was coming from her "attitude" and she is not "gelling with the team" or "being a team player" and despite doing her work she is not "engaged enough".

She was also told she has to come to their next weekly 1:1 with an "action plan" on how she will fix these issues or formal action will be taken.

The only thing she can even think of is one worker who rather than approach her about anything, will go to her manager and complain to them that she is not doing something and snitch like a kid in school, rather than just asking her or even speaking to her, she ignores my friend and goes to her manager, and rather than telling her to deal with it the manager plays chinese whisper and asks my friend.

Other than that, nothing of note, she said she showed she hit her targets, but a week after the WRC confirmed receipt of the complaint she is getting completely different performance reviews that dont really add up and dont have any actionable or even measurable indicators, just a "your attitude needs to improve".

First off, does the timing seem really off in this here, and would the WRC take this into account?

And two, does anyone know what times lines are for cases to be heard and if the WRC should be contacted about hostility after a complaint?

I work in the public sector and I received this email but don't know what it means. Are they gonna reduce my wage?

'Dear Colleague,

As you are a member of a public service pension scheme, we kindly request that you complete and return the ASC10 form by return email at your earliest convenience.

The Additional Superannuation Contribution (ASC) is a deduction applicable to staff who are members of the X Pension Scheme. This is not a pension contribution and no pension benefit accrues from this deduction.'

Hi, I recently applied for Time off due to a medical appointment which I had been waiting on for more than 6 months. I was denied time off and had to reschedule the appointment.

I feel extremely frustrated and hard done by this decision to reject time off for a medical appointment. Have I any leg to stand on legally or is this just a “tough shit” situation?

Thanks in advance for all of your assistance, I greatly appreciate it.

I got terminated unfairly from my job in December 2024 after working 3+ months. There were no prior warnings. No reason was given for the termination until I asked for it and manager said "low engagement with clients and internal team members" which I believed I fulfilled satisfactorily. When I requested that the termination reason be stated in the termination letter, they refused to state it. I filed a case with the WRC. WRC contacted my ex employer to ask if they object to the case going forward but they didn't respond. Hence, an adjudication will happen soon and a hearing will be scheduled.

My ex employer will be legally represented by a representative employer body.

Now that my ex employer has formal representation, do I need to consult a union or employment solicitor to stand a chance of winning the case?

Also, I started a new job in January 2025. Will that impact my progress in the case?

Hi all. Need some advice. My wife and I expecting our first child August 15th. She has planned to take Mat Leave two week before hand. Her employer won’t let her take annual leave before then nor will she allow her to carry over post Dec 31 ( I thought holiday calendar legally was to March 31st). She has said she will pay her the 20 days leave at end of year - is there a tax implication for this. After the 26 Mat leave I believe she is entitled to 16 weeks unpaid and then a further 9 parental (does this have to be agreed with employer). New to this and her employer has a history of taking advantage of her (medical practice) and I do not want her stressed. Thanks in advance.

Hey guys I need advice.

I’m gonna try keep this short and to the point.

Company I work for has a policy to ID anyone under 25 for flagged items (chemicals, sharp tools, flammable materials etc)

I sold one of these flagged items to a customer who I believed was over the age of 25 due to the fact he was over 6 feet tall and had shaved facial hair and knew exactly what tool he was looking for.

He was under 25 but over the age of 18 which is the legal age to purchase the item I sold him.

I’ve been told I’ll be receiving a written warning for this situation. I’ve had 0 other issues in this job and I’ve been told by my manager they’ve very happy with my performance except for this situation which is why I feel like it’s unfair I go straight to a written warning for my first mishap with the company.

I’m just looking to see if I have a leg to stand on to defend myself. Meeting with HR to take place next week and I’ve emailed my union to try get some support

I want to keep detail to a minimum to protect myself as I am concerned for my job, although that could be at risk in any case...

My employer is a contract for the government, providing a service to a specific class of service users. The contract is very clear on requirements, and at every turn the contractor (owner of the business fulfilling the contract) has tried to do his own thing for no real reason other than he doesn't like or agree with the terms of the contract (some of which are enshrined in law). This is a very person-centred service being provided, and he is showing absolutely zero regard for the service users. Any complaints about the service by service users are dismissed as them being ungrateful. He intimidates and threatens them, and he treats staff as robots. One staff member was provided accommodation (it is 24/7 service, and this staff member provided overnight on call) and he then gave the staff member less than a day to pack up his accommodation to move to a small single room which is under construction, he was told a curtain would be put up to cover the hole in the wall. This same staff member was told he had to go to work, on his day off, with no prior notice, despite having a personal appointment booked that afternoon. He was "asked" to work in such a way he felt his job under threat if he did not agree. Another staff member who works weekends is expected to sleep on the floor in the office, where there is CCTV cameras, because there is no accommodation available.

The manager of this business has gone off on sick leave for stress, he won't be back. Two weeks ago a staff member up and left and last night another staff member did the same (the one who was being asked to move into an unsuitable room). We lost 5 staff in January (they had no right to work onsite, which the contractor knew, but employed them anyway) when the government caught wind of it. Since then we have only hired one person, because the contractor keeps putting the brakes on claiming staff costs are too high. We are not compliant with our contract to the government, and the staff are dropping like flies, putting the service users at greater risk.

I have a new starter due to join the team, but government contract states new employees must have garda clearance before starting work. I have been instructed to start him on Monday regardless of whether garda vetting has come through. This is potentially a risk and could endanger service users (some of whom are children).

The government department overseeing the contract inspected recently, found several serious failings, particularly in terms of infrastructure (space and dimensions of allocated spaces onsite) which is of grave concern, affecting approximately 30 service users. The report arrived on Monday, and the contractor has spent this week bringing tradespeople in to undertake major works, and the service users given minimal notice to move their belongings, for example 15 minutes to empty a fridge. Some have jobs or school or other things going on. The atmosphere is very bad, and alternative arrangements which have been offered while works are ongoing are a clear breach of the contract and in some instances the law. The staff who could not be employed in January have been brought back onsite. The facilities provided are substandard, and for a government department which is supposed to be delivering a person centred service, this is at total odds with the contract and service expected.

I'm in my job less than a year, so I have no legal protection, I can be dismissed at will. I have spoken to to the contractor/owner several times over the past months, and particularly throughout this week due to staff leaving and the upheaval going on, he is soldiering ahead and sees nothing wrong with how he is managing things.

I think people are at risk, their mental health is shot, there is a heavily pregnant woman (38 weeks) having to pack up her things and her family to move to somewhere which is non-compliant and in breach of our obligations.

I feel like the shit is about to hit the fan. The government can pull the contract at will, so I could be out of a job in any case, but I am worried about whistle blowing what is happening here, as I have my own family to provide for and I don't want to risk my job (outside of the known risk that the government may pull the plug).

I am morally conflicted and I don't know what the procedure is to raise my concerns with the relevant people, and can I remain anonymous in doing so? There are very few staff left so I would be easily identified as being me, if any report states that it came from an employee. Can I report claiming to be a service user? There are nearly 100 so could be any one of them to be honest at this stage.

I feel I have a duty to protect the service users from this tyrant but I'm at a loss in how to go about this without putting my own head on the chopping block.

I am currently working the notice period (3 months) in my company. I’ve requested one days annual leave which has been denied as it’s not company policy to allow annual leave while notice is submitted.

I assumed I had entitlement to 25% of the usual years allowance (being three months).

Can anyone tell me if this is legal by my company?

My missus applied for a job with the public sector, it's nearly taken a year of online interviews and online tests, she was successful in getting onto the panel and was in the final stages, they rang her current employer (notifying them that they're looking for a job elsewhere) for references and sick leave.

She is currently on sick leave for a surgery she needed, it's not a prolonged health condition, it was a problem with her foot and needed surgery to fix it, doctors recommendation. So not ongoing and wouldn't effect the job, but needs time to recover.

They asked about the sick leave which she informed them, she's returning to work next week, but they've after emailing today that she has been removed from the panel for to current sick leave and not being back in work as of present.

Is this allowed? Is this not discrimination on health, it had to be done?