News

April and May have been extremely busy months for the firm.

In the area of employment law we have a significant case relating to the law relating to setting the levels of compensation in working time cases which was listed before the High Court and is now going on for a full hearing date in November of this year. The legal issue revolves around the interpretation of a case called Von Colson and Kamann. Two other clients of ours have brought similar claims relating to the level of compensation which they have received. The Organisation of Working Time Act provides for compensation of up to two years for each section of the Act which is broken by an employer.

Before the Employment Appeals Tribunal and a lesser extent before the Rights Commissioner Service there are issues relating to Payment of Wages during lay off. A significant case relating to this matter is listed for preliminary hearing in June with a hearing date expected probably in November or December of this year. The amounts involved are quite significant for individual employees ranging from €16,000 to €26,000 each.

In May, on behalf of clients of ours, we won two very significant equality claims. They involved discrimination where a sum of €7,500 was awarded in respect of the discriminatory treatment which the employees suffered because of their race. In addition one of the individuals was successful in receiving an equal pay claim on the basis that an Irish national would be paid over €19 per hour where the non-Irish national was being paid less than €11 an hour for the same work. The period of time that an equal pay claim relates to is a period of two years. On the basis that the employee was working 40 hours per week the full value of the claim is significant being over €30,000.

This firm presented a very successful training course in February of this year relating to the Taxation of Employment law Awards. This training course is going to be represented in Cork in July.

The month of June, July and August are already shaping up to be extremely busy months for this firm with a significant number of cases listed for hearing before the Labour Relations Commission, The Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Equality Tribunal and the Labour Court.

Some of these cases involve significant issues relating to the law. Others involve significant sums of money. All of these cases are important to our clients are therefore important to us.

Personal Injury cases are still arising. Accidents in the workplace and road traffic accidents and accidents in public places appear to us to be rising in the number of claims that we are processing on behalf of our clients at the present time.

It has come to our attention that a considerable number of road traffic accidents where the vehicle, striking our clients vehicle, has been an old vehicle. Due to the current economic environment we believe that a number of people are not getting their cars regularly services, tyres are not being changed and brakes are not being checked. This is resulting in a significant number of accidents which could otherwise have been avoided. While we act in cases involving accidents, at the same time we are there to try and discourage accidents if at all possible. We would encourage anybody who is reading this section to make sure that if they have a vehicle that it is regularly services, the brakes are checked and that tyres are kept at the correct pressure and that worn tyres are replaced. Attending to these matters are not simply matters to be attended to before a NCT test. It is for the drivers protection that the vehicle should always be in good mechanical order and especially that if an incident arises that the driver can stop in good time.

In May this firm was a finalist in the Dansk Bank / Irish Law Awards. We were nominated in the Employment Law Firms for Individual of the Year category. While we did not win we were still one of the five finalists. It is a significant achievement that a boutique firm such as this firm would have been nominated as a finalist in such a prestigious award. We are very proud of our achievement in this respect.

Shortly, our “Keeping in Touch” summer addition will be available on our website. It is available to download. If you would like to be on our mailing list please email info@grogansolicitors.ie and we will place you on our mailing list. We have changed the format of our newsletter. While it does relate to client issues and the work that we have done we have expended this to include articles on the law relating to personal injuries, employment law and taxation. The taxation areas primarily apply to employment based tax issues. The firm is delighted to announce that it has recently been requested to write articles in a number of papers and are currently writing articles for a Polish, Russian and Lithuanian newspaper dealing with employment related issues. We are extremely proud that these newspapers who have significant standing communities would have requested this firm to provide these articles.

The firm of Richard Grogan & Associates continues to offer boutique services in the area of employment law and personal injury claims.

The firm also provides specialist advice in taxation and in particular estate planning. The firm has recently entered into an arrangement with a highly reputable firm of accountants to assist them in estate planning for high net worth individuals.

The Taxation of Employment Law Awards

This is a detailed paper on the taxation of employment law awards which was presented by Richard Grogan to the Employment Law Association of Ireland in January 2013.

Employers watch for the Pitfalls – The Parchment – Dublin Solicitors Bar Association Publication

September 2011

This article sets out how this tax evasion scheme is being used. This tax evasion scheme is particularly relevant and prevalent for mobile workers such as truck drivers and others who work away from their main place of business.

Richard Grogan has written an article for the Law Society Gazette entitled

“Wages of Sin” which deals with the issues about bringing a claim under the National Minimum Wage Act.

On 18^th May 2012 Richard Grogan delivered a paper to the CPA/ EMEA Conference in Lisbon.

The paper presented by Richard Grogan was

“Personal Planning for High Net Worth Mobile Executives”.

The paper dealt with the practicable issues relating to Senior Executives who move between various jurisdictions from a tax and an employment law perspective.

The conference was attended by persons from over twelve countries in Europe and Richard was one of six speakers on the day.

The firm of Richard Grogan & Associates intends to provide up to date relevant and appropriate information on new and developing areas of law in our specialised areas of expertise.  Our newsletter “Keeping in Touch” is produced on a monthly basis and is intended to give general information on developing areas of law.  We will also give our opinions on new areas of law and developing areas.  You can sign up for receiving our newsletter by completing the newsletter sign up document below.  Our newsletter also advises on significant cases in which we were involved.  Where these have been reported on public websites such as in the Labour Court or in the Equality Tribunal we will give appropriate references.

Employment Law Firm

of the Year Category

2013

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