International Women’s Day 2021

Thesaurus Software is proud to be supporting International Women’s Day 2021.

The theme of International Women’s Day this year is “Choose to Challenge”, a theme we wholeheartedly agree with. When we challenge the norms, the status quo, the “because that’s just the way it is”, we create change. At Thesaurus Software we firmly believe that change is necessary for development and improvement, so much so that it is embedded in our core values.

This year we are enhancing our Inclusion and Diversity efforts, in the hope that all staff will feel comfortable in bringing their whole self to work. International Women’s Day is our first day of celebration this year, our aim is not only to celebrate our women, but to raise awareness of inclusion more generally.

Promoting Gender Equality at Thesaurus

We are proud to say that we have always had a strong representation of women right across our company.

Our senior management team is 66% female. Across the Company as a whole, we are 64% female.

As we grow, we are continuously looking at how we can best assist our employees to grow and be themselves. In the last six months, we have introduced two key initiatives which help us achieve this.

• Firstly, LinkedIn Learning has been made available to all employees. LinkedIn Learning has been a game-changer for our employees and opened the window on learning and awareness. 
• Secondly, we have just introduced paid maternity and paternity leave. We really hope that this will help new parents to be successful both at work and at home. 

Our Female Leaders

We asked some of our female leaders for their thoughts on working in leadership;

“It’s important that all managers inspire, engage, and encourage their team. This is what I strive for. As a female manager, I’m very privileged to work for a company that recognises and promotes these values for both men and women equally. Females in any workplace should never underestimate what they are capable of achieving” - Karen Bennett, Chief Commercial Officer

“My advice to my 20-year-old self would be to think of your career as a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t ever settle on the first job or career path you undertake, if you are not invested in it. Allow yourself the time to discover what are you passionate about doing. Finding a job that I love has certainly helped me reach the point in my career that I’m at today.” - Victoria Clarke, Product Development Manager

“As a woman working for Thesaurus Software for the past 23 years and fast approaching retirement, I feel I am now entering the most exciting period of my career at Thesaurus Software and rather than winding down, the journey forward in this fast-growing company, supported by our amazing CEO, Paul Byrne has no limits.” - Ann Tighe, Senior Business Development Manager 

“Working at Thesaurus as a woman in management, I feel inspired by other female leaders and peers within the company to lead my team with the same encouragement I feel every day. I have always felt hugely supported as a woman within Thesaurus which has provided me with the tools I need to motivate and empower my team, particularly as I progressed into the management role.” - Cailin Reilly, Sales Manager

“After joining Thesaurus Software as a Marketing Intern, I never thought that I would be where I am today after just 6 years. Working at Thesaurus Software has really given me the opportunity to progress, both in terms of personal and professional development. No two years have been the same and it has been an exciting time to be part of the team, helping the company grow to where it is today.” - Rachel Hynes, Marketing Manager

IWD 2021 in Thesaurus

Some of our fantastic team have taken part in the IWD challenge, standing up socially distantly and choosing to challenge. See their fab pictures below.

This year, we will also be using our LinkedIn Learning platform to raise awareness around inclusion and equity in the workplace. We have a series of short informative videos addressing a range of topics that we will share with staff remotely during March.

Our message to all our employees today is, bring your whole self to work, your thoughts and ideas are valued, we love to hear them. Working together, trusting, respecting and supporting each other we can only do great things.

Posted byLaura MurphyinCompany NewsEvents

Returning staff to work

The Government’s “Return to Work Safely Protocol” sets out a number of measures employers must consider as they reopen their businesses and bring staff back to work safely.

In terms of bringing staff back to work, employers should put in place a number of measures, including:

1. Employees must be issued with a pre-return to work form to be completed at least 3 days prior to their return. In completing the form, employees will self-declare as being fit to return to work. If a worker answers Yes to any of the questions, they are strongly advised to seek medical advise before returning to work. A template questionnaire including all required questions can be downloaded here.

2. Induction training should be provided for all workers. At a minimum it should include:
1. up to-date advice and guidance on public health
2. details on what a worker should do if they develop symptoms of COVID-19
3. information on how the workplace is organised to address the risk from COVID-19
4. an outline of the Covid-19 response plan
5. clarify points of contact from the employer and the workers

6. any other relevant sector specific advice 

3. Following a risk assessment, employers should arrange for the necessary controls to be put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace.

4. Temperature testing should be implemented in line with Public Health advice.

5. Review and revise existing sick leave policies and amend as appropriate and in line with Covid-19 procedures. A revised sick leave policy is now available in Bright Contracts.

The full Return to Work Safely Protocol can be viewed here. 

Layoff and Short-time Working under Covid-19

Under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2014 a lay-off situation arises if an employer is unable to provide work to an employee for which they are employed to do. A short-time situation arises if an employee's weekly pay or hours is less than 50% of their normal weekly pay or hours due to a reduction in the amount of work to be done for which they are employed to do.

Continuity of Service

Continuity of service is not normally affected by lay-offs. For example, if an employee has been working for an employer for 10 years and is laid off temporarily, their 10 years’ service will remain intact.

Annual Leave

Employees working short-time will continue to accrue leave for the hours they work.

Employees on lay-off will continue to accrue public holidays that occur during the first 13 weeks. They will not accrue annual leave during the period of lay-off.

The annual leave that they accrued up until the point of being laid off will remain intact. Employers should not pay employees in lieu of this annual leave. Rather, it should be made available to the employee to take once they return to work. Given the exceptional circumstances that we are living in, it could well be the case that an employee genuinely cannot take their accrued annual leave this year. If this situation arises employers should try to be flexible in terms of allowing an employee to carry over leave into the next calendar year.

Redundancy

The law on claiming redundancy following a period of lay-off or short-time working had been changed during the Covid-19 emergency period. The emergency period is currently set as 13 March 2020 to 31 May 2020, however this may be extended.

Normally, employees who are laid off or put on short-time hours, you can claim redundancy from their employer after 4 weeks or more, or 6 weeks in the last 13 weeks.

Under the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19), employees who have been laid off during the emergency period, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, are not able to claim redundancy.

Putting staff on layoff

As the country tries to get to grips with the Covid-19 pandemic and companies are struggling with temporarily closing their business and laying-off staff, here are some key things you need to know about layoff.

Layoff or redundancy?

As a result of the recent business closures, many employees have been layed-off. Layoff is a temporary measure, whereby the individual is still an employee of the company but they are not receiving any remuneration for the duration of the layoff. Normally, once the situation that led to the layoff is over, the employee will return to their previous role on the same terms and conditions, their length of service will not be impacted by the layoff. In the current situation, it is hoped that many business will be able to re-engage their staff once the current emergency situation eases.

Redundancy on the other hand occurs when the employee loses their job permanently, due to a business closure or a reduction in work levels.

Other Layoff Considerations

• Employers should give employees notice in writing that they will be put on layoff, although no time period is specified
• Notice can be given using form RP9
• Generally, in order to layoff an employee there should be a layoff clause in the contract of employment or it should be custom and practice in the company. It is imagined that flexibility will be shown at this exceptional time, if neither of these exist. However some employers may consider:

1. including a layoff clause in the agreed terms of employment on a temporary basis,
2. getting some form of confirmation, signature or email, from the employee to the layoff.

Posted byLaura MurphyinCoronavirus

Minimum wage to rise to €10.10 per hour

Minister, Regina Doherty, has announced that from 1 February 2020, the minimum wage will increase from €9.80 per hour to €10.10.

The decision to increase minimum wage by 30 cent follows a recommendation in October by the Low Pay Commission. Strong economic growth and greater certainty surrounding Brexit were two key factors in the decision to introduce the increase.

In order to ensure that the increase in the minimum wage does not result in employers attracting a higher level of PRSI, the employer PRSI threshold will increase from €386 to €395 from 1 February 2020.

Minister Doherty is quoted as saying that; “with this most recent increase in the National Minimum Wage, an employee on minimum wage who works a full 39 hour week will now receive an additional €11.70 per week, or an extra €608.40 gross per year.” It is estimated that over 127,000 workers will benefit from the increase.

Employers should also note that the minimum wage for younger workers will also increase:

• Aged 19: €9.09
• Aged 18: €8.08
• Under 18: €7.07

How will GDPR affect your employee processing?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force on 25th May 2018 changing the way we process data forever. The aim of the GDPR is to put greater protection on the way personal data is being processed for all EU citizens. Personal data can be anything from a name, an email address, PPS number, bank details etc so as you can imagine employers process a huge amount of personal data on a daily basis. So how will the GDPR affect employers in terms of processing employee data?

Consent

Data in the employment context, will include information obtained from an employee during the recruitment process (regardless of whether or not they eventually got the job), it will also include the information you hold on current employees and previous employees. All this information may be saved in hard copy personnel files, held on HR systems or it could be information contained in emails or information obtained through employee monitoring.

Under GDPR your employee’s will have increased rights around their data. These rights will include:

• The Right to Access. It’s not a new concept that employees will be able to request access to the data you hold on them. However, there is a new recommendation that where possible employers should provide their employees with access to a secure self-service login where they can view data stored on them. This backs-up the whole concept of transparency and ease of access to data, which underpins the new Regulations.

• The Right to Rectification. Individuals are entitled to have personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete. This is an existing right and the onus is on the employer to ensure that your employee records are kept up-to-date. To help ensure you maintain up-to-date records, employers should make it easier for employees to update their data.

• The Right to be informed. Employers must be very transparent with employees about what data you hold, why and how long it is held for. Up until now it has been the common practice for many employers to include a standard clause in the employment contract regarding the processing of HR Data, under GDPR that will no longer be sufficient. Employers need to be reviewing their Employee Data Protection Policies and possibly writing new Employee Privacy Policies that go into detail on the processing of employee data.

Employee Self Service

Under the GDPR legislation, where possible employers should be able to provide self-service remote access to a secure system which would allow employees view and manage their personal data online 24/7. Furthermore, the cloud functionality will improve your payroll processing with simple email distribution, safe document upload, easy leave management and improved communication with your employees. By introducing a self-service option, you will be taking steps to be GDPR ready.

Thesaurus Payroll Software | BrightPay Payroll Software

Related articles:

• How long should you retain employee records under GDPR?
• GDPR Data Processor Agreement
• How BrightPay Connect can help with GDPR

Posted byLaura MurphyinEmployee RecordsEmployee Self ServiceGDPRGeneral Data Protection Regulation

Template Data Processor Agreement Now Available

Those of you who were on any of our recent GDPR webinars will be aware that data controllers (e.g. a payroll bureau client) need to be amending their contracts with any data processors (e.g. the payroll bureau) to accommodate the new requirements under the GDPR.

For those of you who did not get to attend our webinars here is a brief overview.

The Legislation

Whenever a data controller uses a data processor there needs to be a written contract in place. The contract is important so that both parties understand their responsibilities and liabilities. The GDPR sets out certain information which needs to be included in the contract.

Controllers are liable for their compliance with the GDPR and must only appoint processors who can provide ‘sufficient guarantees’ that the requirements of the GDPR will be met and the rights of data subjects (an individual who is the subject of personal data) protected.

Processors must only act on the documented instructions of a controller. They will however have some direct responsibilities under the GDPR and may be subject to fines or other sanctions if they don’t comply.

What does this contract look like?

To comply with the new requirements under GDPR you could either:

1. Draft new Terms of Service / EULAs / Engagement Letters for each client to include the new GDPR requirements.
2. Where you have an existing contract in place you could issue an Addendum to this contract covering the new GDPR requirements, this is commonly known as a Data Protection Agreement (DPA).

Our Advice to Payroll Bureaus

Our advice to payroll bureaus is that when it comes to GDPR you should aim to take an active role in educating your clients about GDPR.

Although the onus is on data controllers to ensure contracts are in place, payroll bureaus looking to get ahead of the GDPR would be well advised to approach their clients and instigate putting the appropriate contracts in place.

Template Data Protection Agreement (DPA)

To assist our customers we have created a template Data Protection Agreement which can be used as an addendum to any existing agreements.

Template Data Protection Agreement

Posted byLaura MurphyinGDPRGeneral Data Protection Regulation

St. Patrick's Day 2018 - Employers; is it Saturday 17th or Monday 19th?

This year St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday, leaving many businesses confused as to how the benefit for St. Patrick’s Day should be given. We’ve clarified what you need to know here:

Monday 19th March 2018 may be a Bank Holiday, in that the banks are closed, but it is a normal working day and not a Public Holiday, Saturday 17th is the Public Holiday. Many businesses that operate Monday to Friday will honour Monday 19th as the holiday and close that day, but this is not a mandatory requirement. It is a requirement that full-time employees, and eligible part-time employees, are given their public holiday statutory entitlement for Saturday 17th March.

What is the Statutory Entitlement?

An employee is entitled to their employer’s choice of the following in respect of a public holiday:

• A paid day off on that day
• A paid day off within a month of that day
• An additional day of annual leave
• An additional day’s pay

Open for business on 17th March & 19th March?

Businesses that are open for business on Saturday 17th March should treat Saturday 17th March as the Public Holiday. Employees who are scheduled to work on that day should receive one of the last three options above. Employees who are not scheduled to work on 17th March may receive any of the four options. In this situation, there will be no further requirement to offer an additional benefit on Monday 19th March, this will be seen as a regular day.

Bright Contracts | Thesaurus Payroll Software | BrightPay Payroll Software

Bad Weather equals staffing headaches – what can be done?

With the recent bad weather, many businesses across the country have been forced to close or get by with skeleton staff. The question now on most employer’s minds is do they have to pay staff who are unable to come into work, whether because of workplace closure or inability to travel.

Answer

There is no legal obligation on employers to pay their employees if the business was forced to close due to extreme weather conditions or if employees were unable to travel to work due to bad weather. However, it is important to be aware of any custom and practice in the organisation or contractual clause, which may override this position.

The general advice to employers is to be as flexible as possible. The handling of bad weather and travel disruption can be a real opportunity for an employer to boost staff morale and show yourself as an all round fair employer. Possible considerations might include:

• Can you be flexible with regard to working hours or working patterns?
• Is it possible for employees to work from home or even at a different location?
• Would it be possible for the employee to work back the time missed at a later date?
• Rather than deducting pay for time missed you could offer that the employee take annual leave for the time. Whilst offering this as a solution is recommended, enforcing it without the agreement of the employee would not be best practice. 

A company policy on absence due to inclement weather should address the situation where employees are unable to attend work, due to weather-related circumstances. Having such a policy should also mean there is much less scope for confusion and disagreement.

An Inclement Weather policy is available within the Optional Sections of the Bright Contracts Handbook.

Is it discrimination to top up maternity pay but not paternity pay?

September 2016 saw the introduction of Paternity Leave, that for the first time ever allowed fathers/partners to take two weeks paid leave on the birth of a child/placement of a child for adoption. Paternity Leave is paid at the same rate as Maternity Pay, currently €235 per week*, leaving it up to employers to decide whether or not they wish to top-up pay during the two weeks leave. The question then arose that if by topping up maternity leave, would an employer by default have to top up paternity pay?

A recent Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) case involving a transport company, provides useful guidance on the answer to this question.

In this case, a male employee brought a case under the Employment Equality Act claiming discrimination on the grounds of gender due to the fact that the employer topped up maternity pay but did not top up paternity pay.

However, the WRC Adjudicator held in favour of the Company, stating that maternity leave is different to paternity leave and that “the special protection afforded to women in connection with pregnancy and maternity is embedded in European and Irish law”. The Adjudicator concluded that the employer was entitled to make special provisions for women at the time of maternity leave and was protected in that regard by the Employment Equality Acts.

Conclusion

This case gives the green light to employers who wish to offer a maternity top up but not offer the same for paternity leave. Whatever it is you decide on, employers are advised to have clear paternity and maternity leave policies in place that is accessible to all employees.

*The rate of maternity/paternity pay will increase to €240 per week from the end of March 2018.

To keep up with the latest payroll news, check out our new Bright website. There, you'll be able to register for any of our upcoming payroll webinars and download our payroll guides.

Posted byLaura MurphyinDiscrimination