Employment law and immigration law are two distinct areas of law. However, their interaction can create difficulties for Irish employers. Both areas of law are complex, frequently amended and influenced by public policy, such that anyone in a HR, global mobility or in-house legal function, should have a working knowledge of each.
Employment law governs the working relationship. It is concerned with employment rights: protection from unfair dismissal under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 - 2015, protection from discrimination under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 - 2015, and statutory entitlements which may be enforced through the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Labour Court.
Immigration law exists in a parallel world, in which the State, acting principally through the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (DOJ) controls who may enter and work in Ireland. The Employment Permits Act 2024 prohibits a non-Irish or EEA/UK/Swiss national from working in Ireland without right to work and separately prohibits an employer from employing such a person without it. Breach is a criminal offence, carrying penalties of up to 250,000 and/or ten years’ imprisonment on indictment.
The tension between these two regimes is not theoretical. Recent decisions from the WRC and UK tribunals show how each body of law can pull in a different direction, and what happens to employers who misread the...
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