Maternity Protection of Employees Act, 1981

Interpretation.

2.—(1) In this Act—

“the Act of 1977” means the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 ;

“additional maternity leave” has the meaning assigned to it by section 14 ;

“employee”, except in Part IV , means a person who is in an employment for the time being specified in or under Part I (other than paragraph 7) of the First Schedule to the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981 , not being an employment specified in or under Part II of that Schedule;

“employer”, in relation to an employee, does not include an employer who employs that employee—

(a) on a permanent basis for less than 18 hours in each week, or

(b) under a contract of employment, or otherwise, for a fixed term of either less than 26 weeks or of which there are less than 26 weeks still to run;

“maternity leave” has the meaning assigned to it by section 8 ;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Labour;

“the successor” has the meaning assigned to it by section 20 .

(2) In this Act a reference to a Part or section is to a Part or section of this Act, unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended.

(3) In this Act a reference to a subsection or paragraph is to the subsection or paragraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended.