How Will The New Companies Act Affect Businesses In Ireland

The long awaited Consolidated Companies Bill that came into force on the 1^st June 2015 has affected huge numbers of businesses throughout Ireland. The new law essentially consolidates the existing Companies Acts of 1963-2013 into a single piece of legislation that requires business owners to make a number of changes over the next 18 months.

It’s the largest reform of company law in over 50 years and is intended to make the process of registering and operating a business in Ireland easier. Some of the key changes include:

The creation of two types of Private Limited Company

Any business currently registered as a Private Limited Company (PrC) will have to decide between one of two new options.

Private Company Limited by Shares (LTD)

Expected to be used by corporations, under the new law an LTD company requires:

Only one director as long as they’re a member of the EU and over eighteen years of age.

If a LTD company has one director it must appoint a separate company secretary that can either be an individual, or a corporate body. If you chose an individual, this cannot be the same person who fulfills the role of director.

A new LTD company will have “Limited” after its name.

Previously, businesses had to state their business objectives in the Memorandum and Articles of Association document. This will be replaced by a single document (commonly referred to as the “constitution”) and businesses will no longer be required to state their objectives to the government.

The omission of the objects clause allows the company to trade in any lawful business or activity.

Companies are no longer required to hold an Annual General Meeting.

May pass written resolutions by the relevant majority.

Designated Activity Company (DAC)

Certain companies are expected to become a DAC including charities, management companies, regulated financial institutions and companies limited by guarantee.

You must have at least 2 directors both over the age of eighteen.

All DAC companies (except charities) will require a change of title that includes Designated Activity Company at the end of the company name.

A DAC must still hold Annual General Meetings.

Companies will have a two-page constitution that states the objects for which the company is incorporated.

A DAC can claim eligibility for an audit exemption.

Codification of Directors

To clearly outline responsibilities, under the new law there are now eight principle duties that all directors must adhere to:

Act in good faith.
Act honestly and responsibly.
Act in accordance with the company’s constitution.
Not to use company property unless approved by the constitution.
Not to fetter discretion unless permitted by the constitution.
To avoid conflicts of interest.
To exercise care skill and diligence.
To have regard for the interests of members as well as employees.

For anyone found to be breaking the new laws, fines will range from €5,000 – €500,000 depending on the severity of the offence.

Loans to and from Directors

The rules surrounding loans to and from a director has also been amended. If there is no appropriate documentation surrounding the terms of the loans, the following will be presumed:

Loans to a director will be subject to interest and repayable on demand.

Loans from a director will not be considered a loan and won’t bear any interest.

Foreign Companies

For foreign companies with a presence in Ireland, the new Companies Act has abandoned the concept of “place of business” cancelling the registration numbers of any existing business.

For foreign companies that meet certain requirements you may want to consider registering the business as a branch.

There will be an 18-month transition period from the 1^st June 2015 and any company failing to act within this timeframe will automatically be deemed to be a DAC during the transition period, and a LTD after the transition deadline. Failure to convert to the appropriate company type may cause legal issues for the company, shareholders and directors.

This post was written by Open A European Company.com. Helping entrepreneurs, startups and businesses with company incorporation and formation in Ireland and the rest of Europe.

The post How Will The New Companies Act Affect Businesses In Ireland appeared first on Small Business Can.

John Jordan Photography profiled

John Jordan Photography delivers quality, creative, tailored photography for Irish businesses, big and small, in the area of portrait, location and still life. We deliver it with flair, experience and commitment and have been doing so for over 14 years.

Why did you start?

Photography was always a way of life for me. I had been shooting rolls of film since I was 8 or 9. It was a good business to get into (when I did) and I saw it as a way of working with other local businesses in a creative, fulfilling way. Visual story telling is the future.

Why are you unique?

We like to engage with clients at an early stage in projects, and push hard to realise them to their best. We listen carefully and always get a feel for the job before we do anything else. We have the skillbase to work in several different areas, and we always find an angle to make sure our clients stand out.

Visual communication is key

Every job is unique and an opportunity to bring creativity and experience to the table. Photography is a really key part in personal and business branding. Just telling your story. Its unfortunate that people sometimes don’t realise this – particularly for profile pictures on LinkedIn.

In the small amount of time and space that you get to convince your customers, as they initially check your website, visual communication is paramount and effective photography is key in those few seconds.

Transform how people are portrayed

We work to transform the way businesses portray their brand, their personality, their values. We believe that the right photography is a really essential part of telling and selling your story and growing your business.

We strive to show people how compelling photography, as with great design, can add value and credibility to their business, changing the way not just customers think about it, but staff and management also.

Clients

It’s always an honour to be trusted with the responsibility of being part of a company’s visual presence/ identity. It’s one that we take seriously.

We have worked for small Start-Ups and SME’s right through to large multi-nationals like Arup and Aviva, and Danone.

What are your plans?

Continue to build strong relationships with good clients. Continue to play to my strengths and be open to new opportunities.

Contact details

John Jordan Photography

T.00353-1-4450261

M.00353-87-2454871

email: isee@johnjordanphotography.com

web: www.johnjordanphotography.com

twitter: @johnjordansnaps

The post John Jordan Photography profiled appeared first on Small Business Can.

The three National ClimateLaunchpad Finalists

One of the members of the Smallbusinesscan team had the pleasure to coach the participants in the climatelaunchpad. This are the winners that are going to Amsterdam. If you can help them in any way, contact ron@smallbusinesscan.com. All help, suggestions, ideas, introductions appreciated.

wasteNOT

is a technology to enable the consumer to efficiently manage their food by reducing waste and saving money. A combination of innovative labelling, ICT and a smart phone app will automatically maintain an inventory of current food by expiry date and send push notifications of food that needs eating with suggested recipes. The founders Eoin White, Tom Oldfield and Nick Holden, have a dream to enable sustainable food systems globally.

The wasteNOT team

The three team members have a passion for system thinking and sustainability. Tom Oldfield is carrying out a PhD in sustainability, focused on the environmental impact of recovering nutrients from agri-food resources. Tom’s career has transitioned from the British Army to being a Humanitarian professional with Concern Worldwide to completing his PhD. Eoin White is a sustainability consultant specialising in energy analysis and life cycle assessment. He also works as a part time researcher at UCD investigating environmental decision analysis. Prior experience includes working for Shell Global Solutions. Nick Holden is a professor in UCD, and is a global expert in agricultural and environmental research, specialising in the environmental impact of agri-food sector and soil.

Boltz Secret Seeds

are seedbombs enhanced with biochar. They are a platform to encourage people to garden at home, locally produce fruit & flowers and make a great occasion gift. The biochar enhancement promotes the growth of the seeds thus making them more efficient and environmentally friendly. The founder Elaine Doyle, has a dream to develop products that are environmentally responsible and the first product – secret seeds – will change the world one flower at a time.

The Boltz team

Elaine is academically, professionally and personally passionate about sustainability, having worked in various organisations such as Engineers without Border, Food Cloud, and Wind Prospect. She has a background in engineering, specialising in materials and environmental education, development and social entrepreneurship. She is the founder of Bolts, an environmental product development company and the first product she has developed is called Secret Seeds.

Agri Grow Lights

is a state-of-the-art solution that, by controlling the light spectrum from LED lights, food producers can increase the nutritious content of crops. The founders – Brian Reilly – has a dream to provide solutions to address global challenges on food production; growing more nutritious crops will assist in productivity, encourage people to grow their own and reduce excessive food miles and carbon emissions. The added bonus is that the LEDs are super energy efficient.

The Grow Lights team

Brian Reilly is a Horticultural Scientist with qualifications from UCD, and the idea being presented is based on his final year dissertation. Brian has keen interest in R&D to develop the agricultural industry worldwide to ensure security of food supply and nutritional value of food, and has established the company Agri Grow Lights to achieve this goal. Brian has completed a graduate programme with IPM Potato Group, a subsidiary of Donegal Investment Group.

The post The three National ClimateLaunchpad Finalists appeared first on Small Business Can.

WasteNOT, Boltz Secret Seeds and Agri Grow Lights are business achievers

Minister Bruton announces finalists to represent Ireland at the European ClimateLaunchpad Final

The “A Green Space to Innovate” event kick started the “Sustainability Gathering 2015” and took place on Monday afternoon, the 22^nd of June, 2015 at the CHQ Building, Custom House Quay, Dublin.

The event showcased innovative cleantech entrepreneurs, and hosted the national final of the ClimateLaunchpad competition.

The ClimateLaunchpad programme is managed by Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative.

The three finalists wasteNOT, Boltz Secret Seeds and Agri Grow Lights were announced by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, and will represent Ireland at the European ClimateLaunchpad Final

The European Final will take place in Amsterdam on the 4^th of September 2015 and Start-ups from 28 countries will compete in it.

Announcing the finalists, Minister Richard Bruton, T.D. remarked: “The green economy is an important economic pillar for Ireland’s continued growth and prosperity and is a key sector which we have targeted as part of our Action Plan for Jobs. We are determined to nurture and support more entrepreneurs and start-up businesses in this area. Ireland’s participation in ClimateLaunchpad is a wonderful opportunity to position our cleantech entrepreneurs to take advantage of global opportunities.”

Cleantech entrepreneurs are establishing businesses that respond to global challenges such as climate change and resource (energy, water) scarcity. By their nature entrepreneurs and start-up companies are demonstrating leadership by taking brave decisions to develop their business and have a global impact.

Frans Nauta, Deputy Director Entrepreneurship Climate-KIC and founder of ClimateLaunchpad: “Across Europe hundreds of good ideas were submitted for ClimateLaunchpad 2015. It’s great to see so many start-ups with outstanding cleantech innovations that combat climate change. This competition trains teams to develop and sell their ideas. We see lots of opportunities for them to achieve global impact with their businesses.”

The post WasteNOT, Boltz Secret Seeds and Agri Grow Lights are business achievers appeared first on Small Business Can.

This post was originally published here - http://www.smallbusinesscan.com/wastenot-boltz-secret-seeds-and-agri-grow-lights-are-business-achievers/ on

Entrepreneurship in Local-serving Industries and How to Carry Out SEO

Below are a few tips to guide you in establishing an SEO strategy that will be effective with both your target audience and the search engines.

Importance of SEO to local based practitioners

Studies in the field of law for instance have shown that Google, Bing and other search engines are the second most prevalent way people use to find lawyers. Roughly, 22% of potential clients start their search on their Internet homepages, while a further 11% start somewhere else on the Internet. Added up, it means roughly one third of all potential clients attempt to find attorneys through the Internet.

While the study was specific to lawyers, the figures are not much different for other locally serving professionals. As a dentist, chiropractor or other practitioner, it’s safe to assume that a significant percentage of new clients will come from search engines and other online sources.

Why SEO is difficult for local-based practitioners

The math seems quite simple – invest towards SEO and you will start seeing your business expand and grow. However, it really is not that simple. Like everything else related to business, SEO takes hard work and a lot of smarts in order to succeed.

The main challenge of SEO is the fact that Google as well as other search engines make continuous changes to their rules and algorithms. Therefore, what is applicable today may become inapplicable tomorrow. There’s no knowing when or what the next update will be, since any changes are wholly at the search engines’ discretion.

Given the frequency of algorithm updates, it’s very difficult for a fulltime practitioner to also invest time in learning SEO best practices and carrying them out. Just when you have learnt some technique, chances are that the rules might be changed, taking you back to square one. That’s why professional entrepreneurs need to have professional SEO services on board to handle that aspect of business.

Hiring an SEO Professional

There are several options available in this regard: you choose an SEO freelancer, an agency or hire an in-house SEO professional as part of your staff. In any scenario, there are millions of SEO and growth marketing service providers who can offer the service you need. However, practicing entrepreneurs have little knowledge about SEO and online marketing, which can make hiring the right service provider more challenging for them.

As a credible practitioner, you stand to lose much if you form an association with SEO service providers who are not conversant with or don’t follow the rules. You will either lose a lot of money or destroy your online reputation. Most likely, both will happen. Therefore, you have a big responsibility to find out what kind of SEO services your business will be best served by, and carry out careful assessment of potential service providers until you have the best one.

There’s a lot to learn about SEO, and the limited experience of local-serving practitioners makes them prime candidates for scamming by unscrupulous “experts” with little understanding of the inside workings of SEO. As you conduct your search, bear in mind that anyone can say anything about the skills and knowledge held, but concrete results are what you should look out for.

Google Hummingbird and why you should care

Prior to searching for SEO assistance, you need to have a rough idea of SEO basics. You may not have the time to delve into the intricacies of the trade, but at the least you must know what’s allowable and not, any new major algorithm updates and how they would affect your practice. This will make the foundation of your conversations with potential service providers.

First, it was Google Panda, followed by Google Penguin and in October 2013, Google Hummingbird joined the game, being the most complex algorithm released to date. There are many features of the Hummingbird algorithm, but the most important for local practitioners is the importance placed on local results and semantic search capability.

Below are a few rules to play by to continue winning in the Hummingbird era:

Remember that high quality and relevant content is still the best SEO weapon in your arsenal, regardless of any reports to the contrary. Ensure that your articles’ content base on your key practice areas, and make it semantically pleasing to hook readers.
Ensure your contact information is clear and consistent. Hummingbird tries to serve results based on searchers’ locales; hence appropriately displaying accurate contact information will enable you to nab searchers in your locality. You should also set up and maintain an active social media profile on major social networks, including Google Plus.

Keywords may have diminished in value, but they are still important to your SEO strategy. Be keen to note how potential service providers treat your keywords in the strategy they intend to implement for your practice. Have a healthy balance between long-tail and short-tail keywords, and don’t overdo any.

The post Entrepreneurship in Local-serving Industries and How to Carry Out SEO appeared first on Small Business Can.

Is the Recruitment Sector Underutilising Digital as a Marketing Channel?

Consumer trends within the recruitment sector shows that 43% of job seekers are now searching via mobile devices heavily suggesting a strong user journey is increasingly important for agencies. This not only relates to creating a responsive website but also the execution of online navigation, both of which are driving factors in building a clear, stable platform for brand engagement.

In fact, recruiters who invest in mobile platforms will witness great improvements to their business, there is evidence of this with some quoting a 14% improvement in time to hire, 19% increase in the quality of hire, and a 10% uplift in the quality of referrals according to industry research.

Encendo undertook a study to drill down further into the attitudes towards digital expenditure and investment among recruitment agencies in Ireland to determine whether the marketing services being offered align with consumer demand.

Marketing budgets

Generally speaking, 10-20% of marketing budgets are allocated to the digital marketing channel, although the study uncovered that 11% of respondents did not know what their financial investment in digital marketing was.

When considering that the expended amount is a 20% or less spend on marketing overall against revenue, and digital spend takes up a 10-20% portion of that, then overall digital can be said to equate to 1-2% against revenue, which can be argues to be a low investment for such a highly effective measurable and actionable marketing channel.

When taking a look at monthly digital marketing spend across the spectrum the survey found that 27% of respondents claim they spend less than €500 against to 35% saying they spend more than €1,000.

Data also highlighted that a significant 41% could knowingly confirm how much of their revenue could be attributed to digital marketing.

It may seem obvious to hear that that 96% of respondents are expecting to increase or stabilise their digital marketing budgets over the course of the next twelve months, an indicator of buoyancy in the industry and a desire to evolve with more efficient marketing behaviour.

Lead generation

Further prompting explored lead generation as one of the biggest areas of marketing focus for recruitment organisations within Ireland, with a large proportion of participants in the survey considering both clients and candidates as key target audiences (81%).

Not surprisingly, all organisations have a website, however there is an inconsistency between the perception of what it means to own a truly responsive website. Our results came back with 77% of webmasters believing that their website is responsive although Encendo’s manual research found as few as 64% of websites to not have a truly responsive website.

Further investigation into the functionality of said websites raised another red flag – regardless of their responsive nature, Encendo found that over half (59%) of them had poor design features, with less than satisfactory user journeys and limited use of social to increase reach and amplify the message. To this end, only 33% of sites dame the decision to display clear Social Media Share buttons.

From the research undertaken we can deduce that the findings are in tandem with the initial recruitment agency marketing survey. It appears the recruitment industry is still reliant on traditional methods, such as word of mouth and referrals as the top way of landing new clients and candidates.

Poor return on investment

In stark contrast, digital marketing is perceived as a bigger obstacle for recruiters for a number of reasons, and many having witnessed their digital marketing campaigns as producing poor return on investment. However, as industry experts on the recruitment sector Encendo can state with confidence that digital can unearth positive results both short and long-term as it has ability to measure bang-for-buck and have a transparent vision of how you are activity is influencing your business.

Webmasters should bear in mind that the application of digital monitoring is very much dependent on clear attribution and tracking. It also stands or falls on the quality of landing pages, user navigation throughout the website and such likes to optimise conversion opportunities during the onsite experience. The key take-home message here is no matter how strong the strategies and investments might be in digital marketing activity, your returns will always come up short if your conversion funnels do not cater for today’s users.

Francis Mac Aonghus

Head of Digital for Encendo, a leading online marketing agency based in Ireland. Francis’ area of expertise lies in formulating marketing strategy and activities including search engine optimisation, campaign performance, pay per performance advertising, email marketing and other digital activities and online marketing campaigns.

The post Is the Recruitment Sector Underutilising Digital as a Marketing Channel? appeared first on Small Business Can.

Business Attire: Dressing Like You Mean Business

A lot of businesses tend to have dress codes for their employees. This is particularly true in industries where image-building is a necessary part of the success strategy, and jobs which involve regular face-to-face interaction with customers.

If you run a business and would like to set a dress code for your employees to adopt, then you need to ensure that it is reasonable and in keeping with the type of work involved. That should make it easy to implement.

A restrictive or an excessively detailed dress code can not only make it difficult for employees to adhere to it, it may also make them want to rebel. Also, if the dress code is unclear and vaguely defined, the employees can take undue liberties with it and conveniently transfer the blame on the lack of specificity in the details of the dress code.

It is crucial for an organization, that its employees come to work in proper business attire as it helps set the tone for the rest of the day. Studies have shown that the way employees dress at work goes a long way in determining their productivity. According to these studies, the level of alertness takes a hit when employees dress casually.

As per Dr. Karen Pine, professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and fashion psychologist, “When we put on an item of clothing it is common for the wearer to adopt the characteristics associated with that garment. A lot of clothing has symbolic meaning for us, whether it’s ‘professional work attire’ or ‘relaxing weekend wear’, so when we put it on we prime the brain to behave in ways consistent with that meaning.”

Most responsible organizations make it a point to bar the following type of clothing –

Garments with offensive and/or intolerant prints or words
Tank tops, halter tops and/or vests
Tattered clothes
Gym clothes or sports wear
Hats or caps, unless it is employee-issued headgear

When deciding the dress code, organizations need to ensure that it is –

In keeping with the nature of the job and not based on personal preferences. The dress code should be set in accordance with industry standards and customs.
Sensitive to gender, nationality, race, creed, etc. The dress code should not encourage the treatment of one person less or more favorably than the other.

Here’s why having set office attire is important.

1. It Conveys Company’s Expectations Accurately

It is important to set clear guidelines and policies with regards to the workplace attire will go a long way in lessening uncertainty among employees.

If your employees are inclined towards dressing casually, but you would like them to be more professionally dressed, you will do well to mention this in your workplace guidelines to set clear company expectations and leave no room for doubts. The workplace today is culturally diverse and the office attire should underpin your policies on diversity and workplace inclusion.

2. Helps Make the Right Impression

Having set guidelines about office attire can be highly instrumental in shaping the image you want your organization to project. Asking employees to dress formally can be extremely beneficial for a startup that wants to look more established and professional.

The way in which you and your employees appear to the rest of the world can help immensely in setting the kind of impression you want to make. Apart from that, you can use the workplace attire to create a more progressive image of your company.

3. Bring a Culture of Professionalism

Many a time, a company’s dress code can help increase the pride that the employees have of being a part of it. A professional appearance can give rise to more professional attitudes and behaviors, and this will reflect in every aspect of your business, thereby lending your organization a more refined demeanor. For instance, tailored suits can work well in offices occupied by male employees holding higher ranks. Formal shirts and a pair of trousers/skirts or a formal dress in a solid color could make for the perfect dress code for female staff.

4. Influence Your Customers

A set workplace dress code can help you make customers see your business in a favorable light. This can work wonders if you regularly host client meetings in the office, or conduct face-to-face interaction with your customers on a daily basis. Having an appropriate, industry-specific dress code can inspire trust and ensure that your customers view your business as the preferred organization.

5. Convenience to Employees

If you haven’t had a dress code so far, putting one in place may cause a few employees to cringe initially. But, it may actually turn out to be more convenient for them in the long term because it will make every day dressing and grooming very specific and hence, there will be less (or no) second guessing involved. They will no longer have to worry if they’re over or under-dressed for work. All they will need to do is stick to the dress code.

6. Sense of Consistency

When all your employees abide by the set standards of the dress code, it will create not only an atmosphere and a culture of professionalism, but also a sense of visual consistency. Apart from that, a dress code also acts as a familiar thread that binds the employees together and work unitedly, thereby promoting positive team dynamics. This holds particularly true if the dress code is specific about clothes in a certain color, or its different hues.

7. Steering Clear of Unnecessary Trouble

By having a set dress code, your employees can steer clear of making unsuitable dressing decisions which could eventually lead to safety hazards, cause a human resource issue, or a PR disaster. For example, if the workplace is an oil factory, it would make sense to wear anti-slip shoes, helmets and gloves to reduce the risk of slipping and injury. If the workplace is a regular office, the dress code should stipulate certain details such as the minimum hemline length for skirts, and the number of buttons which may be left open in a button-down shirt.

Conclusion

Having a dress code can be helpful, but it is also important to see to it that you convey it well in advance to your employees, so that there is ample time for feedback and modifications. Updating certain aspects of the dress code every few years will ensure easier acceptance and compliance as the code will be fresh and relevant time after time. The above recommendations should help you understand the various nuances of having a proper workplace dress code in place.

The post Business Attire: Dressing Like You Mean Business appeared first on Small Business Can.

This post was originally published here - http://www.smallbusinesscan.com/business-attire-dressing-like-mean-business/ on

In House Litigation: What Your Company can do to Prepare Your Case

Business in today’s world is often riddled with matters of litigation and legal crossroads. From not abiding by your own sales conditions, to law suits involving intellectual property rights, in-house corporate litigation issues will often require more legal flexibility than exists in an outside legal firm. If your company decides to hire an in house litigation team to prepare your next case, then here are some ways your team will be able to help you out in the right ways.

Proper Communication with outside Legal Entities

If you have to work with outside legal professionals, your in-house litigation team will be a valuable tool to facilitate proper communication with your outside legal interests. This is useful is because your in-house lawyers will be more aware of your corporate business strategies and interests, which is one area where an outside legal entity may be at a disadvantage or lack proper understanding of your business. In this situation, your in-house lawyers will be able to act as a go-between. This helps to ensure that any special outside legal entities you deal with will be able to better understand not only the legal issues involved with your case, but also the business-related aspects of the case as well.

Drafting and Filing Legal Documents

Another way an in-house litigation team will help your company on its next case is by drafting any specialized legal documents you may need. With more than one attorney on your team scrutinizing how things are worded and prepared, this will help any major oversights from occurring in document preparation. In addition, in-house attorneys will also be able to help your company file any legal motions through proper court channels so everything happens when it is supposed to. With your team you can directly oversee the way documents are handled and prepared and make sure all your information is correct.

Specialized Counsel

An important aspect of allowing an in-house attorney prepare your litigation case is that their perspective is obtained from inside the business itself. This means they will have enough of an insight into how your company operates to guide the legal course of action your company should take to secure its best interests. If anything out of the ordinary emerges that requires you seek outside litigation attorneys to augment your in-house team’s efforts, chances are your in-house team will know the best place to turn to obtain the specific type of legal counsel required. They should be able to anticipate where or what to do in a court of law and how your business reputation will be able to handle any blows.

When it comes to preparing for your next case, your in-house litigation team will be an integral key to your success in court. Who better to represent your company in litigation matters than attorneys who deeply grasp how your company does business? Even if things look bleak, experienced in-house attorneys will often be able to better know how to help your company mitigate any losses.

The post In House Litigation: What Your Company can do to Prepare Your Case appeared first on Small Business Can.

Ulster Bank Teams Up With Munster Agricultural Society to Sponsor Cork Summer Show

Ulster Bank is sponsoring one of Ireland’s longest running and most loved agricultural shows, The Cork Summer Show, which takes place on 20 and 21 June 2015.

Four participants of the Business Achiever Awards have been given the opportunity to show their wares at the show, compliments of Ulster Bank.

The Cork Summer Show will take place at the 100-acre showgrounds site at Curraheen on 20 and 21 June, when the area will be home to more than 1,700 animals including 700 horses, 120 sheep, 80 goats, 100 poultry and 400 cattle. There will also be more than 300 dogs competing across 9 categories in the pet and pedigree dog shows.Running over two days on 20 and 21 June at the Curraheen showgrounds, this year’s Cork Summer Show expects to attract over 50,000 visitors. An incredible line up of livestock shows, sheep shearing, show-jumping, vintage tractor rally as well as farm to fork artisan food markets, craft beer stalls, musical entertainment, home & garden show, petting farm and dog shows will guarantee a great festival atmosphere and a super weekend for all show visitors.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.corksummershow.

The post Ulster Bank Teams Up With Munster Agricultural Society to Sponsor Cork Summer Show appeared first on Small Business Can.

Workplace Consultations

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 consultation between employers and employees is provided for to help ensure co-operation in the prevention of accidents and ill health. Under the Act, employees are entitled to select a safety representative to represent them on safety and health matters that they may have to their employer within their workplace. The safety committee can also be used for the communication on important health and safety issues such as

risk assessments and subsequent safe systems of work
workplace hazards
emergency procedures
new working practices or new work equipment
workplace welfare issues

Section 26 sets out the arrangements for this consultation on a range of safety and health issue, these are key provisions and a central part of the preventive system of promoting safety and health at work.

Who appoints the safety representative in the organisation?

Section 25 entitles employees to decide on, select and appoint a safety representative or, by agreement with their employer, more than one safety representative to represent them in consultations with their employer.

The following factors should be considered when deciding

The number of employees to be represented
The nature of the work and degree of risk
The operation of shift work
The number of site locations

It is essential that safety representatives have the knowledge and skills necessary to perform their function effectively. Peninsula can provide an IOSH accredited managing safely course. This course in includes information regarding

Safety and health legal system
Role of the Safety Representative and Safety Committee members in the safety consultation and participation process
Communication skills for the Safety Representative and Safety Committee members
Hazard identification and carrying out Risk Assessments
Preparing and implementing the Safety Statement
Carrying out safety and health inspections
Accident investigation, recording and analysis
Sources of safety and health information
Risk control and safety and health management at work
Course follow up

Employers must allow safety representatives reasonable time off from work, without loss of earnings, in order to acquire knowledge that will enable them to function effectively. This also applies to time taken to carry out these functions. A representative does not have any duties, as opposed to functions, other than those that apply to employees generally. A safety representative who accepts a management proposal for dealing with a safety or health issue could not be held legally accountable for putting the proposal into effect.

Functions of a Representative

A safety representative may consult with and make representations to the employer on safety, health and welfare matters relating to the employees in the place of work. The employer must consider these representations, and act on them if necessary. The intention of these consultations is to prevent accidents and ill-health, highlight problems, and identify means of overcoming them. Consultations are particularly important when changes are taking place, for example when a safety statement or safety and health plan is being drawn up, or new technology or work processes, including new substances, are being introduced.

A safety representative may also:

accompany an inspector carrying out an inspection other than the investigation of an accident or dangerous occurrence (although this may be allowed at the discretion of the inspector)
at the discretion of the inspector, and when the employee concerned so requests, be present when the inspector interviews the employee about an accident or dangerous occurrence at a place of work
make representations to the employer on safety, health and welfare at the place of work
make verbal or written representations to inspectors, including about the investigation of accidents or dangerous occurrences
receive advice and information from inspectors in relation to safety, health and welfare at the place of work
consult and liaise with other safety representatives appointed in the same undertaking, in different places of work under the control of the employer or at different times at the place of work

However, a representative must not interfere with anything at the scene of the accident. Nor can the safety representative obstruct any person with statutory obligations, including a Health and Safety Authority inspector, from doing anything required of them under the Act. However, Section 27 also prohibits an employer from penalising or threatening to penalise an employee with respect to any term or condition of his or her employment, if the employee is:

acting in accordance with safety and health legislation or performing any duty or exercising any right under safety and health legislation
making a complaint or a representation about safety, health or welfare at work to his or her safety representative, to their employer or to an inspector of the Health and Safety Authority
giving evidence at any prosecutions or other legal proceedings taken by the Authority, or on behalf of the Authority
a safety representative or is an employee having duties in an emergency
leaving or refusing to return to the place of work when he or she reasonably considers that there is serious or imminent danger which the employee could not reasonably have dealt with or for taking or proposing to take appropriate steps to protect themselves or other persons from the danger considering the circumstances and the means and advice available to him or her at the relevant time.

The post Workplace Consultations appeared first on Small Business Can.

Category Archives: Latest