Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act, 1991

• Permanent Page URL

Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“the Act of 1967” means the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967 ;

“the Act of 1984” means the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Act, 1984 ;

“excluding provision” means—

(a) (i) subsection (1) of section 4 of the Act of 1967 in so far as it has the effect of excluding employees from the application of that Act by virtue of the Social Welfare (Subsidiary Employments) Regulations, 1979 ( S.I. No. 127 of 1979 ), the Social Welfare (Employment of Inconsiderable Extent) Regulations, 1991 ( S.I. No. 28 of 1991 ), or any other regulations for the time being prescribed by the Minister under subsection (3) (a) of this section, or

(ii) subsection (2) of the said section 4,

(b) section 3 (1) (a) of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973 ,

(c) (i) in relation to annual leave entitlement, section 3 of the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 , in so far as it has the effect of excluding employees from the application of that Act by reference to the number of hours worked, or

(ii) in relation to public holiday entitlement, section 4 (2) of that Act,

(d) the definition of “employee” in section 1 (as amended by the Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Act, 1988 ) of the Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Act, 1977 , in so far as it has the effect of excluding employees from the application of that Act by reference to the number of hours worked,

(e) paragraph 8 (as amended by the Act of 1984) of the First Schedule to the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973 , as applied for the purposes of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 , by virtue of section 2 (4) of the latter Act,

(f) (i) the definition of “employee” in section 2 (1) of the Maternity Protection of Employees Act, 1981 , in so far as it has the effect of excluding employees from the application of that Act by virtue of the Social Welfare (Subsidiary Employments) Regulations, 1979, the Social Welfare (Employment of Inconsiderable Extent) Regulations, 1991, or any other regulations for the time being prescribed by the Minister under subsection (3) (a) of this section, or

(ii) paragraph (a) of the definition of “employer” in section 2 (1) of that Act,

or

(g) section 3 of the Act of 1984, in so far as it has the effect of excluding employees from the application of that Act by virtue of the Social Welfare (Subsidiary Employments) Regulations, 1979, the Social Welfare (Employment of Inconsiderable Extent) Regulations, 1991, or any other regulations for the time being prescribed by the Minister under subsection (3) (a) of this section;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Labour;

“regular part-time”, in relation to an employee under a relevant enactment, means an employee who works for an employer and who—

(a) has been in the continuous service of the employer for not less than 13 weeks, and

(b) is normally expected to work not less than 8 hours a week for that employer,

and to whom, but for this Act, a provision of the relevant enactment would not apply because of an excluding provision;

“relevant enactment” means—

(a) the Redundancy Payments Acts, 1967 to 1990,

(b) the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts, 1973 and 1984,

(c) the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 ,

(d) the Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Acts, 1977 and 1988,

(e) the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 ,

(f) the Maternity Protection of Employees Act, 1981 , or

(g) the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 and 1990;

“the Tribunal” means the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

(2) References in this Act to an employee or to an employer shall be construed, as is appropriate in the circumstances, by reference to an employee or an employer, respectively, for the purposes of one or more than one relevant enactment as amended by this Act.

(3) (a) The Minister may, for the purposes of paragraphs (a) (i),(f) (i) and (g), or any of them, of the definition of “excluding provision”, by order prescribe any regulations made by the Minister for Social Welfare and to which either or both subsection (1) of section 4 of the Act of 1967 and section 3 of the Act of 1984 relates and may by order amend or revoke any order so prescribing.

(b) The Minister may by order amend the definition of “regular part-time” so as to alter either or both the minimum number of weeks of continuous service and the minimum number of hours a week that a person is normally expected to work, and may so amend where that definition has been previously amended by virtue of this subsection.

(c) Where an order is proposed to be made under this subsection, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.