The Gazette 1992

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1992

written for lawyers it will be of con- siderable use to lawyers seeking easy reference to pa r t i cu l ar statutory provisions. I am sure many practitioners have, like me, little areas of blanks in their minds where particular items or details are impossible to retain. As long as I have been practising in the area of employment law I cannot remember the sliding scale of service related notice entitlement in the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973, hence the great value of an easy to use reference work such as this guide. The Guide covers everything from conditions of employment through health and safety, and industrial relations to such diverse statutes relevant to employment law as the Ju r i es Ac t, 1976, t he Data Protection Act, 1988 and the Companies Act, 1990 insofar as it relates to contracts of service. For a book of its size and modest pretensions it also has an admirable index. While we have had a very welcome growth in the publication of native Irish legal works in recent years I have always found the standard of indexation to be less than impressive. Maybe I am alone in this but I do not tend to read legal text books from cover to cover but rather to dip into them as I need to. The contents and index sections are therefore vital to the proper use of any such publication and this one is particularly well served in that regard. While the cover of the Guide is pleasing to the eye, the printer or designer overlooked printing the title on the spine. A blank wh i te spine on one 's bookshelf does not help in finding this easy to use reference work unless it happens to be the only blank spine in view. The Guide has improved w i th each successive edition. While this edition refers from time to time to the current state of interpretation of specific statutory provisions, it does not refer to case law nor give any assistance towards further research. That is not the purpose of the Guide and if it were to adopt a practice of citing relevant case law, it would probably become im-

Strikes in essential services have in recent times been problematic which is a major flaw in this legis- lation as was evidenced by the ESB strike some months ago - Mr. Kerr states that the proofs of the book 'were corrected largely by candle- light'. A Voluntary Code of Practice on disputes in essential services has just been launched by the Minister for Labour. The code was drawn up by the Labour Relations Commis- sion, an industrial relations body established under the Act com- prising both sides of industry. This text is recommended to all lawyers who are involved in acting for trade unions, their members and those who represent either party in trade disputes. One looks forward to the second edition already to see what further interpretations there may be on the 1990 Act and to consider how successful it will have been in the light of experience. Guide to Employment Legislation. Federation of Irish Employers. 5th Edition. September, 1991. pp 201 £25 . 00 As a body of law employment legislation has grown dramatically, particularly since the early 1970s. Individual statutes interact and overlap to a considerable degree in addition to which our legislators have regularly tacked on amend- ments in a piecemeal fashion making it extremely difficult to plot a course through many of the individual statutes and employment legislation as a body. Back in 1979, the Federation of Irish Employers, or as it then was, the Federated Union of Employers, first produced a very useful guide to employment legislation and recently has published the fifth edition of that guide. As well as adding legis- lation not covered in previous editions, the latest edition contains somewhat more commentary than previously with useful references to relevant jurisprudence, albeit in very general terms. While the book is not Frances Meenan

practical for the publishers to keep up to date given the modest pretensions of the publication. Nonetheless, it is an excellent guide and will be of great assistance to all practitioners for quick and easy reference to the main provisions of employment legislation in Ireland. I have noticed other FIE publica- tions appearing on the shelves of legal booksellers but I have not seen this one or its predecessors. I have no doubt in time it will so appear but in the meantime can be obtained from the FIE office in Dublin, contact Audrey Beas/ey 601011. • Our thanks to our eminent speakers and to our generous sponsors - The Investment Bank of Ireland L imi t ed (our ma in sponso r ), Butterworths, Sweet & Maxwell and Doug l as L l amb i as and Associates. Copies of the lectures are available from Delphine Kelly of A. & L. Goodbody, Solicitors. The next SYS conference is a joint one w i th the Younger Members Committee of the Law Society and t he No r t he rn Ireland Young Solicitors Group and will be held in Newcastle, Co. Down from the 8th to the 10th May, 1992. See p. 16 of this Gazette for details. • Gary Byrne SYS Conference (Continued from page 16)

Jennifer Blunden, Public Relations Officer, SYS.

The Comprehensive Service Valuations Acquisitions Sales Mergers Consultancy The Douglas Llambias Group Contact David Wilson In London or Dublin Clifton House 410 Strand Lower Fitzwilliam Street London WC2R ONS Dublin 2 03071-836 5904 01-613788

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