Payment of Wages Act, 1991

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Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“cash” means cash that is legal tender;

“contract of employment” means—

(a) a contract of service or of apprenticeship, and

(b) any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is a party to the contract) whose status by virtue of the contract is not that of a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual, and the person who is liable to pay the wages of the individual in respect of the work or service shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be his employer,

whether the contract is express or implied and if express, whether it is oral or in writing;

“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment and references, in relation to an employer, to an employee shall be construed as references to an employee employed by that employer; and for the purpose of this definition, a person holding office under, or in the service of, the State (including a member of the Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces) or otherwiseas a civil servant, within the meaning of the Civil Service Regulation Act, 1956 , shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the State or the Government, as the case may be, and an officer or servant of a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act, 1941 , a harbour authority, a health board or a vocational education committee shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the authority, board or committee, as the case may be;

“employer”, in relation to an employee, means the person with whom the employee has entered into or for whom the employee works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Labour;

“strike” and “industrial action” have the meanings assigned to them by the Industrial Relations Act, 1990 ;

“the Tribunal” means the Employment Appeals Tribunal;

“wages”, in relation to an employee, means any sums payable to the employee by the employer in connection with his employment, including—

(a) any fee, bonus or commission, or any holiday, sick or maternity pay, or any other emolument, referable to his employment, whether payable under his contract of employment or otherwise, and

(b) any sum payable to the employee upon the termination by the employer of his contract of employment without his having given to the employee the appropriate prior notice of the termination, being a sum paid in lieu of the giving of such notice:

Provided however that the following payments shall not be regarded as wages for the purposes of this definition:

(i) any payment in respect of expenses incurred by the employee in carrying out his employment,

(ii) any payment by way of a pension, allowance or gratuity in connection with the death, or the retirement or resignation from his employment, of the employee or as compensation for loss of office,

(iii) any payment referable to the employee's redundancy,

(iv) any payment to the employee otherwise than in his capacity as an employee,

(v) any payment in kind or benefit in kind.

(2) Except in section 5 (5) (f), a reference in this Act to an employer receiving a payment from an employee is a reference to his receiving such a payment in his capacity as the employee's employer.

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

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