This article is from page 4 of the 2008-10-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
According to information obtained from the Free Legal Aid Centres (FLAC) in Ennis and Shannon, the numbers of Clare people with em- ployment related queries has sky- rocketed in the last six months, since the recession took hold. In that time period, the level of employment re- lated queries has almost doubled, from 10 per cent of total queries at
the beginning of the year to just un- der 20 per cent now.
According to the Director General of FLAC Noeline Blackwell, these increases indicate that employees are being asked to adopt new work prac- tices and many are examining their rights in the event of forced redun- dancies.
‘In Clare we can see that employ- ment law queries are up quite a bit. We are seeing this in our centres in Ennis, Shannon and indeed all over the country, but also from our phone Service,’ she said.
“The kind of questions that we are hearing are about people being asked to adjust their working hours and
people who are being asked to ad- just their salaries. You get the feeling that people are being asked to be a lot more flexible by employees and a lot of the time to work for less money.
‘People are also being asked to go into new positions, most probably because companies are trying to combine two sections of a company into one. This is anecdotal informa- tion but the numbers increasing at the centres 1s not, we have dates to back up that.”
Since the Free Legal Aid Centres were set up, family law has always been the most popular subject. How- ever, the figures so far this year in- dicate that this trend will be bucked
in 2008, with employment law taking the top spot.
“What most people don’t realise is that while there are some general rights for employees, these right must be applied to their own contracts,” continued Ms Blackwell.
“They are entitled to know the terms of their employment, they are entitled not to be unfairly dismissed and they are entitled to be paid for their work. But beyond that you must look at your own contract of employ- jee lin
The Free Legal Aid Centres in En- nis and Shannon can be contacted 065 6841221 and 061 364704 respec- TON