You Are The HR Director Of A Multinational Pharmaceutical Company: Irish Employment Law Essay, UCD, Ireland

You are the HR Director of a multinational pharmaceutical company (‘the Company’)and have been in the role for three years. Research and development, as well as manufacturing, sales, marketing and back-office support services make up the roles within the company at present.

The company employs 2,300 staff in Galway and 763 in Killarney in the manufacture of drugs. A further 37 are employed in sales and support services in Wexford and492 in research and development projects in Sligo. Worldwide, the company employs 17,384 workers worldwide, in the UK, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East.

64% of the employees in Ireland are whole-time permanent, 26% are fixed whole time fixed-term employees and approximately 5% are independent contractors (the company does not have an accurate figure) and approximately 4% of the workforce is of unknown status.

In November 2019, the company commenced negotiations for the purchase of a large, newly built manufacturing facility in India. The negotiations were on hold since the beginning of March 2020 due to Covid-19 but have re-commenced this week. The Indian Government is very anxious for the deal to proceed and may be willing to provide some up-front finance to the company in for of non-repayable grants.