Happy St Patrick’s Day and fingers crossed for a Pat Reidy’s nephew Rob Kearney making history by wining two Grand Slams.

https://www.rte.ie/radio1/this-week Today’s interview on This Week with our Partner Andrew Cody.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/whistleblower-prison-officer-wins-30k-for-poor-treatment-468131.html Reidy Stafford represented this man in a landmark decision and our Partner Andrew Cody will be discussing this case on the News at One tomorrow Sunday March 11.

One of our Partners Andrew Cody will be on This Week at 1 on Radio 1 this Sunday March 11 discussing the treatment of a whistleblower in the Irish Prison Service.

Following heavy snowfall and for the health and safety of our staff we have decided to close our offices until next Monday. We hope all our followers will stay safe over the next few days .

We wish all our clients and friends a very Happy Christmas. We will be closing for Christmas on Friday the 22nd December 2017 at 1pm and will reopen at 9am on Wednesday 3rd January 2018.

Many employers will now be hosting their Christmas parties. While employees often see these events as an opportunity to “let their hair down”, the legal position is clear. An office Christmas party is conducted “in the course of one’s employment”. With all the allegations of sexual harassment at the moment Eddie Hobbs tweeted recently that you would need to bring your Solicitor to the Christmas Party this year. Here are a few tips and traps. An employer is liable for the conduct of its employees at an office Christmas party organised by the employer. The Equality Tribunal and the Labour Court have had little difficulty in holding an employer liable where a person is harassed at a work-related event such as a Christmas Party. Be careful of Social Media as the last thing you need is for photographs from your Christmas party going viral on social media sites for all the wrong reasons. While Secret Santa or Kris Cringle in the office is often seen as a bit of fun, the anonymity involved can sometimes result in inappropriate, and even offensive gifts, being exchanged between colleagues. A few years ago, a present of red Santa boxer shorts given by a female Garda to her male colleague as part of Secret Santa in their workplace ended up before Letterkenny Circuit Court. Every employee participating in a Secret Santa needs to think twice as what might seem like a bit of fun could be offensive and could be construed as bullying or harassment. Whilst the office Christmas function is a time to relax and enjoy the company of others, such a function is an extension of the workplace. Hence appropriate standards of behavior and decorum need to be maintained to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone concerned and to avoid any unpleasant “legal” hangovers. It is indeed a case of prevention being better than the cure. Prior to the function, the employer should remind all staff that whilst it may be a Christmas function and a time to relax and enjoy themselves, it is still work sponsored and there are appropriate and required standards of behavior to be observed

With the unprecedented weather forecast for tomorrow we will open tomorrow morning and will close mid morning.

It's holiday season, but are you getting your minimum entitlement to holidays. Under Section 19 (1) of the Organisation of Working Time Act you are entitled to a basic annual paid leave entitlement of 4 weeks. There are 3 different ways of calculating your annual leave entitlement: An employee is entitled to the greater of A. 4 working weeks' paid annual leave. 20 days normally. B. 1/3 of a working week for each calendar month in which the employee has worked at least 117 hours C. 8% of the hours worked in the leave year, subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks. When calculating the entitlement, employers should include all hours worked including time spent on annual leave, maternity leave, parental leave, force majeure leave, adoptive leave or the first 13 weeks of carer’s leave. An employee who has worked for at least 8 months is entitled to an unbroken period of 2 weeks' annual leave. Part-time work: Generally, the annual leave for part-time workers is calculated using 8% of hours worked. Enjoy your holidays.

Are you melting at work? What are your rights? There is no maximum temperature stated under the Health and Safety regulations but as a guideline a minimum comfortable working temperature for indoor sedentary workers is 17.5 degrees centigrade. In extremely hot weather conditions, measures such as for example, the provisions of fans, provision of cold water dispensers and regular water breaks for staff, the relaxation of formal dress codes, the introduction of flexible working patterns etc., can assist in maintaining comfortable working conditions. Similarly in the U.K. there is no maximum temperature but their approved code of practice states that ‘all reasonable steps should be taken to achieve a comfortable temperature’. The UK Trade Union Council has called for a maximum temperature of 30°C (27°C for those doing strenuous work), so that employers and workers know when action must be taken. It should be stressed that this is intended as an absolute maximum rather than an indication that regular indoor work at just below 30°C would be acceptable. In Ireland each enclosed workplace must be adequately ventilated. In most cases the natural ventilation provided through windows and doors will be adequate. However in some cases forced ventilation may be required. Windows, skylights and glass partitions in offices must be so arranged as to prevent the excessive build up of temperature at workstations from excessive sunlight. If you are so hot that you feel unwell then you are entitled to leave work to seek medical advice but otherwise your employer will have to do what ever they can to make your workplace as safe as possible. If they don't and your workplace is so hot that it is a threat to your health and wellbeing you could be entitled to leave work.

We will be in Court in Tullamore today and unfortunately will see more honest and decent people being led astray by this type of "advisor". These advisors have become prevalent, have no qualifications and tend to convince unfortunate homeowners they can offer some hope of defeating a Banks application for repossession . People should engage with wonderful organisations like The Irish Mortgages Holders organisation and try to hold onto their home or resolve their debt problems. Instead these advisors are driving people further into debt and making it less likely they will hold onto their home by advising them to unnecessarily fight costly litigation on some hairbrain notion, rather than trying to come to an agreement with their lender.