Employee is Family Member

hannahmum

Hi All,

Any advice welcome...

If an employee is related to the owner of a business- can they legally give that employee different employment rights to other employees in similar positions within the same department?

In particular:
Paid Days Holidays
Paid Sickdays v's unpaid sick days
Xmas Bonus

Thanks in advance.

Mrs OBumble

Provided that they meet the legal minimum requirements for everyone, they can do what they want. Favoured employees can be given extras. Less favoured ones can be given less.

Some jobs are covered by national awards etc. They specify minimums that are above the legal requirements, and may or may not stop people getting "extras". However if people do get extras when they're not supposed to, this is a breach of the award not of the law, so very hard to do anything about.

Giving family members extras (or less, for that matter) may not be good management practice, but that is a whole different story.

gerrycollins

hannahmum wrote: »

Hi All,

Any advice welcome...

If an employee is related to the owner of a business- can they legally give that employee different employment rights to other employees in similar positions within the same department?

In particular:
Paid Days Holidays
Paid Sickdays v's unpaid sick days
Xmas Bonus

Thanks in advance.

they could have a completely different contract and nothing wrong with that,probably not but tbh so long as they are not abusing the member of staff ie long hours, denial of breaks, age restrictions etc there is nothing that can be done about it

dreamers75

If someone doing the same job as you is getting more or less holidays than you , you can bitch like a mother****er.


Assuming he/she is doing the same job as you if boss says he has different contract, tell him you want the same * may mean you getting less/more wages.


if he/she is getting less holidays /wages than you, not your problem, but tell them to bitch like a mother****er.

eth0_

I think you are all missing the point.
The OP states this person is getting 'paid sick days' which implies the OP and his/her colleagues are not paid for sick days. Sick pay is a company policy, it isn't something you can give to one employee and not to another.

And as for the Xmas bonus - does this person do the same job as you?

Maybe contact NERA for advice on this, it does seem a bit discriminatory.

LegacyUser

While it definetly sounds like favoritism unless it actually affects your workload why dont you just mind your own business?

doolox

A private company, with directors owning the company and not having outside shareholders to account to, can do as it likes in regards extras given to employees for whatever reason as long as they stick to the minimum standards demanded by law.
The boss could write an odd extra cheque for his relative for no reason and what could you do about it?
Nothing.
The only thing that makes employers treat all workers equally is public accountabilty to external auditors and shareholders. In this case, public limited companies have to publish accounts and give information which makes their treatment of employees, relatively speaking, rule-based and rational.
Unions also have a role in keeping their membership treated equally and tyr to improve workers conditions generally but in reality have little power in the internationally trading private sector and the small business sector in Ireland.
The reality is that for whatever reason the owner of a business can dispose of his assets:- money, time people etc as he sees fit and now wouldn't be a good time to rock the boat.
The ingestion of corvines would be more appropriate.

Jo King

There is a right to equal pay for work of equal value. If the o/p is of a different gender/ age bracket from the relative the o/p may succeed in a claim under the equality legislation.

Newaglish

Jo King wrote: »

There is a right to equal pay for work of equal value. If the o/p is of a different gender/ age bracket from the relative the o/p may succeed in a claim under the equality legislation.

That would be a bit of a long shot.

I would say just suck it up. It's a sign of really poor management practice but this is Ireland we're living in and it's the way things are done in a lot of cases.