Unfair Dismissals (Amendment) Act, 1993

Amendment of section 2 of Principal Act.

3.—Section 2 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by—

(a) in subsection (1), the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (j):

“(j) officers of a health board (other than temporary officers) or a vocational education committee established by the Vocational Education Act, 1930 .”,

(b) in subsection (2), the insertion after paragraph (b) of the following proviso to subsection (2):

“Provided that where, following dismissal consisting only of the expiry of the term of a contract of employment such as aforesaid (‘the prior contract’) without the term being renewed under the contract or the cesser of the purpose of the contract—

(i) the employee concerned is re-employed by the employer concerned within 3 months of the dismissal under a contract of employment such as aforesaid made between the employer and the employee (‘the subsequent contract’) and the nature of the employment is the same as or similar to that of the employment under the prior contract,

(ii) the employee is dismissed from the employment,

(iii) the dismissal consisted only of the expiry of the term of the subsequent contract without the term being renewed under the contract or the cesser of the purpose of the contract, and

(iv) in the opinion of the rights commissioner, the Tribunal or the Circuit Court, as the case may be, the entry by the employer into the subsequent contract was wholly or partly for or was connected with the purpose of the avoidance of liability under this Act—

then—

(I) this Act shall, subject to the other provisions thereof, apply to the dismissal, and

(II) the term of the prior contract and of any antecedent contracts shall be added to that of the subsequent contract for the purpose of the ascertainment under this Act of the period of service of the employee with the employer and the period so ascertained shall be deemed for those purposes to be one of continuous service.

In this proviso ‘antecedent contract’, in relation to a prior contract, means—

(A) a contract of employment such as aforesaid the term of which expired not more than 3 months before the commencement of the prior contract, or

(B) each of a series of contracts the term of the last of which expired not more than 3 months before the commencement of that of the prior contract and the term of the other or of each of the other contracts in the series expired not more than 3 months before the commencement of that of the other, or the next, contract in the series,

being a contract or contracts made between the employer and the employee who were parties to the prior contract and the nature of the employment under which was the same as or similar to that of the employment under the prior contract.”,

and

(c) the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (4):

“(5) Notwithstanding subsection (4) of this section, the dismissal (not being a dismissal referred to in the proviso (inserted by the Unfair Dismissals (Amendment) Act, 1993) to subsection (2) of this section) of an employee followed by his re-employment by the same employer not later than 26 weeks after the dismissal shall not operate to break the continuity of service of the employee with the employer if the dismissal was wholly or partly for or was connected with the purpose of the avoidance of liability under this Act.”.