Holidays (Employees) Act, 1939

Workers.

2.—(1) In this Act—

the word “worker” means any person of the age of fourteen years or upwards who is employed, other than—

(a) a person whose rate of remuneration exceeds in value three hundred and fifty pounds per annum, or

(b) a person to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented or repaired or adapted for sale in his own home or on other premises not under the control or management of the person who gave out the materials or articles, or

(c) a person who is a member of the staff of a shop within the meaning of the Shops (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1938 (No. 4 of 1938), or

(d) a person who is a railway refreshment-car attendant, or

(e) a person who is an agricultural worker within the meaning of this section, or

(f) a person who is employed as the master or a member of the crew of any sea-going vessel (other than a barge or a hopper), whether publicly or privately owned, engaged in the transport of cargo or passengers, or

(g) a person who is employed on a lighthouse or lightship, or

(h) a person who is a clergyman in Holy Orders, or

(i) a person who is a member of any religious order or community, or

(j) a person—

(i) who is the wife, husband, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, step-father or step-mother of or who is a son, daughter, grandson, grand-daughter, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, half-brother or half-sister of, the person by whom he is employed, and

(ii) who is maintained by and dwells in the house of such last-mentioned person, or

(k) a person who is employed in extracting from a mine any substance (other than coal, fireclay, slate, gypsum, stone or any prescribed substance), or

(l) a person who is employed by or under the State other than—

(i) a person so employed to whom, by virtue of section 6 of the Act of 1936, the Act of 1936 applies, or

(ii) a person so employed as a porter, doorkeeper, messenger, night-watchman, charwoman, cleaner, or labourer or in other subordinate duties, or

(iii) a person so employed in an unestablished capacity as an artisan or other skilled labourer, or

(m) a person employed as a fisherman, or

(n) a person who—

(i) is employed on any work or scheme of works the expenses of which are in whole or in part met from moneys provided by the Oireachtas for the provision of employment and the relief of distress, and

(ii) is so employed for a period of time during which, in accordance with a pre-arranged system, he work for an aggregate number of days not exceeding five times the number of weeks during which the employment continues, or

(o) any person who belongs to an excluded class within the meaning of this section;

the expression “domestic worker” means a person who—

(a) is a worker and

(b) is not an industrial worker, and

(c) either—

(i) is entitled under his contract of service to free lodgings either in his employer's house or elsewhere, or

(ii) does work of a personal or domestic nature in or about the dwelling-house of his employer;

the expression “non-domestic worker” means a worker who is not a domestic worker;

the expression “industrial worker” means a worker, other than an outworker within the meaning of the Act of 1936, who does industrial work for a salary or wages or for the purpose of learning any trade or calling;

the expression “non-working day” means in relation to a worker a day on which such worker does not under his contract of service normally work;

the expression “a full day's pay” when used in relation to a worker means the amount payable to such worker under his contract of service in respect of a normal full working day.

(2) For the purposes of sub-section (1) of this section the expression “agricultural worker” means a person who is employed by the occupier of agricultural land and is so employed wholly or mainly on work (including industrial work) connected with the user of such land, but does not include—

(a) a gamekeeper, or

(b) a stableman, or

(c) a groomsman, or

(d) a person wholly or mainly employed in work connected with any part of such land which is maintained as an amenity to a residence on such land, or

(e) any person belonging to a class (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Minister thinks fit) of workers declared by regulations made by the Minister (which regulations the Minister is hereby authorised to make) and for the time being in force to be a class of non-agricultural workers for the purposes of this Act.

In this sub-section the expression “agricultural land” means land used for tillage, dairy farming, poultry farming, market gardening, or horticulture or used as grazing, meadow or pasture land but does not include osier land or woodland or land used as a nursery ground.

(3) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, by order declare that any particular class (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Minister thinks proper) of employed persons shall be an excluded class for the purposes of this section, and whenever any such order is made then so long as such order is in force, the class of employed persons to which such order relates shall be an excluded class for the purposes of this section.

(4) The Minister may revoke or amend any order made under this section (including this sub-section).