Ireland’s Pensions Board [1] is a statutory body set up under the Pensions Act 1990. It regulates occupational pension schemes and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) in Ireland as part of its statutory role to monitor and supervise operation of the Pensions Act. It also advises the
Like other companies in the Irish insurance sector, AXA Insurance has experienced competitive difficulties in recent months. In July 2008, the company and the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU [1]), Ireland’s largest trade union, reached consensus on a restructuring deal
On 12 June 2008, Ireland’s referendum on the Lisbon Treaty [1] resulted in the treaty being rejected by a margin of 53.4% to 46.6% of votes. Both the Irish government and other EU leaders have had to come to terms with Ireland’s rejection of the treaty. [1] http://europa.eu/lisbon_treaty/full_text
After seven years of negotiations, the EU Member States finally reached agreement on a temporary agency work [1] directive on 10 June 2008 (press release (81Kb PDF) [2], *EU0806029I* [3]). The default position of the new EU directive is that equal treatment [4] rights for temporary agency workers in
In 2007, it was announced that the mobile phone company, O2 Ireland, would outsource 450 staff in two different phases. The outsourcing process is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. The first phase will involve 230 staff moving to the multinational computer technology and consulting
Health employers in Ireland, represented by the Health Service Executive-Employers Agency (HSE-EA [1]), have concluded an agreement, as of May 2008, with trade union representatives on a new contract for hospital consultants. This latest agreement was reached after over four years of stop-start
On 30 April 2008, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI [1]) published a study on The immigrant earnings disadvantage across the earnings and skills distributions: The case of immigrants from the EU’s new Member States in Ireland [2]. It concludes that migrant workers from the new Member
In March 2008, the results of the EU-funded study ‘Quantitative overview on supplementary pension provision’ (974Kb PDF) [1] were published. The study was carried out on behalf of the European Commission by Hewitt Associates [2] – a company which provides human resources outsourcing and consulting
A new study of Ireland’s top companies has confirmed a strong link between better working conditions, bottom-line business performance and the use of high-performance work systems (HPWS) at the workplace. HPWS include strategic human resource management (HRM) in relation to staffing, training and
The increased pressure being mounted by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU [1]) for temporary agency worker rights coincides with the failure of EU ministers to reach agreement on the temporary agency workers’ directive on 5 December 2007. However, the proposed directive could still be back on