S.I. No. 139/1951 - Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1951

S.I. No. 139 of 1951.

EMPLOYMENT REGULATION ORDER (SUGAR CONFECTIONERY AND FOOD PRESERVING JOINT LABOUR COMMITTEE), 1951

WHEREAS the Labour Court (hereinafter called " the Court ") pursuant to the provisions of Section 43 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 (hereinafter called " the Act "), made the Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1948 (hereinafter called " the said Order "), fixing the statutory minimum remuneration and regulating the conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee (hereinafter called " the Committee ") operates ;

AND WHEREAS the Committee has submitted to the Court the proposals set out in the Schedule hereto for fixing the minimum rates of remuneration and regulating the conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Committee operates ;

AND WHEREAS the provisions of section 43 of the act have been complied with ;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Court, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 43 of the act hereby orders as follows :—

(1) This Order may be cited as the Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1951.

(2) Effect is hereby given to the proposals set out in the Schedule hereto.

(3) The proposals set out in the Schedule hereto shall have effect as from the 25th day of May, 1951, and as from that date the said Order shall be amended by the substitution of Parts I, II, V and VI of the Schedule hereto for Parts I, II, V and VI respectively of the Schedule to the said Order.

SCHEDULE.

PART I

GENERAL MINIMUM TIME-RATES AND PIECE-WORK BASIS TIME-RATE FOR MALE WORKERS

Section I.—General Minimum Time-Rates :—

In the case of a Male Worker under 22 years of age, the General Minimum Time-Rates shall be payable subject to the condition that the worker is employed under conditions which afford a reasonable prospect of advancement to the General Minimum Time-Rate of 2s. 7½d. per hour. Otherwise the General Minimum Time-Rate payable shall be 2s. 6½d. per hour irrespective of age.

Section II.—Piece-Work Basis Time-Rate for all Male Workers—

2s. 11d. per hour.

Section III.—Shift Work. In the case of Workers employed between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. under a Shift Work Licence granted by the Minister for Industry and Commerce the minimum rates of wages shall be one and one-eighth of the appropriate minimum rates set out in Sections I and II above.

PART II

GENERAL MINIMUM TIME-RATES AND PIECE-WORK BASIS TIME-RATE FOR FEMALE WORKERS

Section I.—Female Workers (other than Female Learners)—1s. 5d. per hour.

Section II.—General Minimum Time-Rates for Female Learners as defined in Part V of this Schedule.

PART III

NORMAL WORKING HOURS AND OVERTIME RATES

Section I.—The normal number of hours to be worked by workers in relation to whom the Committee operates shall be as follows :—

PROVIDED THAT—Overtime Rates shall be payable where on any day the number of hours worked exceeds the declared normal number of hours of work for that day, notwithstanding that the number of hours worked in the week does not exceed the declared normal number of hours of work for the week.

Section II.—The Minimum Rates for Overtime to apply in respect of hours worked by Male and Female Workers, whether employed on Time-Work or on Piece-Work, in excess of the declared normal number of hours of work shall be as follows :—

(a) For the first two hours of Overtime on any day the Overtime Rate shall be one-and-a-quarter times the Minimum Rate otherwise applicable—i.e., Time-and-a-quarter.

(b) For Overtime after the first two hours of Overtime on any day the Overtime Rate shall be one-and-a-half times the Minimum Rate otherwise applicable—i.e., Time-and-a-half.

(c) For all hours worked in any week in excess of the declared normal number of hours of work for the week, the Overtime Rate shall be Time-and-a-quarter, except in so far as the higher Overtime Rate is payable under the provisions of paragraph (b) of this Section.

(d) When a Statutory Public Holiday falls on a day on which work would normally have been done but for the fact that such Public Holiday did fall on such day the number of hours which would have been worked shall, for the purpose of this Part, be calculated as hours worked.

PART IV

HOLIDAYS AND HOLIDAY REMUNERATION

Workers who qualify for annual leave under Section 10 of the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1939 , shall, in addition to the seven consecutive whole holidays prescribed therein, be granted a further period of seven consecutive whole holidays, and the payment in respect of this further period shall be calculated in the same manner as that for the statutory period provided for by that Act.

PART V

CONDITIONS GOVERNING LEARNERSHIP

Section I.—A Female Learner is a female worker who :—

(a) is employed during the whole or a substantial part of the hours of work in learning any branch or process of the trade set out in Part VI hereof (hereinafter in this Part referred to as " the trade ") by an Employer who provides the Learner with reasonable facilities for learning such branch or process, and

(b) has received a certificate to the effect that she is a member of the Learner class in the Trade, or has made an application for such certificate which has been acknowledged and is still under consideration.

PROVIDED THAT—

(i) An Employer may employ a Learner on first employment in the Trade without a certificate of registration for a probationary period not exceeding four weeks, but in the event of such Learner being continued thereafor in the employment, the probationary period shall be included in the period of Learnership.

(ii) A Learner shall cease to be a Learner, and shall become entitled to the Minimum Time-Rate payable to female workers other than Learners, on the completion of four years' employment in the Trade.

(iii) Any worker employed as a Learner who has previously been employed in any branch of the Trade specified in the Trade Boards (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade) Special Order,1945, shall count the whole period of such previous employment in calculating the period of Learnership completed by her and for the purpose of claiming the time-rate at which she is entitled to be paid.

(iv) An application for a Learner's Certificate must be made to the Joint Labour Committee in respect of every worker whom it is desired to employ at the special lower rates fixed for Learners. Unless a Learner's Certificate has been obtained, or an application therefor has been made which has been acknowledged and is still under consideration, and the other conditions of learnership laid down in this Schedule are complied with, the minimum rate payable shall be that fixed for female workers other than Learners.

(v) Notwithstanding compliance with the conditions contained in this Part of the Schedule, a worker shall not be deemed to be a Learner if she works in a room used for dwelling purposes, and is not in the employment of her parent or guardian.

Section II.—The issue of Certificates to Female Learners shall be governed by the following conditions relative to the provision of reasonable facilities for learning the Trade :—

(1) The proportion of Learners who have had less than two years' employment in the Trade, to other female workers employed therein shall not, as a general rule, exceed one such Learner to three other such female workers in the case of any particular employer, and the issue of Learners' Certificates shall be restricted accordingly.

(2) Where, however, the Joint Labour Committee is satisfied in any particular case that special facts or circumstances so require, the Committee may authorise the issue of Learners' Certificates in excess of the proportion above specified.

Section III.—The Joint Labour Committee may if it thinks fit refer to a sub-committee appointed under the provisions of paragraph 8 of the Second Schedule to the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 , applications made to it under this Part of this Order and may also, if it thinks fit, delegate to the sub-committee so appointed any or all of its powers and duties thereunder and the expression Joint Labour Committee used in Sections I and II of this Part of this Order shall include the sub-committee so appointed.

PART VI

DEFINITION OF WORKERS

The Statutory Minimum Remuneration and Statutory Conditions of Employment set out in this Schedule shall apply, subject to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 , and of this Order, to all workers including female learners in respect of any time during which they are employed in any branch or process of the trade specified hereunder :—

(a) the making of sugar confectionery, cocoa, chocolate, jam, marmalade preserved fruits, fruit and table jellies, sauces and pickles,

(b) the preparation of poultry, game, fish, vegetables and fruit for sale in a preserved state in tins, pots, bottles and similar receptacles,

(c) the processes of wrapping, boxing, parcelling, bottling, filling, packing, labelling, warehousing and despatching when such processes are carried out in connection with any making or preparation referred to, in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) above,

(d) all operations (including, in particular, the cleaning of premises, utensils and plant) incidental or appertaining to the making of articles referred to in paragraph (a) to the preparations of articles referred to in paragraph (b) or to the processes referred to in paragraph (c) above,

but excluding—

(i) maintenance work of all descriptions (including the maintenance of steam and power),

(ii) transport,

(iii) non-industrial work,

(iv) the covering and filling of biscuits, wafers and cakes with chocolate or sugar confectionery, and

(v) the making of meat extracts or meat essences or the preparation of meat for sale in a preserved state in tins, pots, bottles and similar receptacles.

PART VII

GENERAL

In the case of each worker specified in this Schedule who is employed on piece-work, each piece-rate must be such as will yield, in the circumstances of the case, to an ordinary worker not less than the Piece-Work Basis Time-Rate. In determining whether any piece-rate satisfies this condition, regard must be had only to the earnings of ordinary workers, i.e., workers of ordinary skill and experience in the class of work in question, and not to the earnings of Learners or infirm workers or workers of greater or less than ordinary skill and experience.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Court this 17th day of May, 1951.

(Signed) NIAL MACLIAM.

A person authorised under section 18 of the act to authenticate the Seal of the Court.