Working Time Issues
Organisation of Working Time Act
Provision of information in relation to working time.
17.—(1) If neither the contract of employment of the employee concerned nor any
employment regulation order, registered employment agreement or collective
agreement that has effect in relation to the employee specifies the normal or regular
starting and finishing times of work of an employee, the employee’s employer shall
notify the employee, subject to subsection (3), at least 24 hours before the first day
or, as the case may be, the day, in each week that he or she proposes to require the
employee to work, of the times at which the employee will normally be required to
start and finish work on each day, or, as the case may be, the day or days concerned,
of that week.
(2) If the hours for which an employee is required to work for his or her employer
in a week include such hours as the employer may from time to time decide (in this
subsection referred to as “additional hours”), the employer shall notify the employee,
subject to subsection (3), at least 24 hours before the first day or, as the case may
be, the day, in that week on which he or she proposes to require the employee to
work all or, as the case may be, any of the additional hours, of the times at which the
employee will be required to start and finish working the additional hours on each
day, or, as the case may be, the day or days concerned, of that week.
(3) If during the period of 24 hours before the first-mentioned or, as the case may
be, the second-mentioned day in subsection (1) or (2), the employee has not been
required to do work for the employer, the time at which the employee shall be notified
of the matters referred to in subsection (1) or (2), as the case may be, shall be not
later than before the last period of 24 hours, preceding the said first or secondmentioned
day, in which he or she has been required to do work for the employer.
(4) A notification to an employee, in accordance with this section, of the matters
referred to in subsection (1) or (2), as the case may be, shall not prejudice the right
of the employer concerned, subject to the provisions of this Act, to require the
employee to start or finish work or, as the case may be, to work the additional hours
referred to in subsection (2) at times other than those specified in the notification if
circumstances, which could not reasonably have been foreseen, arise that justify the
employer in requiring the employee to start or finish work or, as the case may be, to
work the said additional hours at those times.
(5) It shall be a sufficient notification to an employee of the matters referred to in
subsection (1) or (2) for the employer concerned to post a notice of the matters in a
conspicuous position in the place of the employee’s employment.
Provision in relation to zero hours working practices.
18.—(1) This section applies to an employee whose contract of employment operates
to require the employee to make himself or herself available to work for the
employer in a week—
(a) a certain number of hours (“the contract hours”), or
(b) as and when the employer requires him or her to do so, or
(c) both a certain number of hours and otherwise as and when the employer
requires him or her to do so,
and the said requirement is not one that is held to arise by virtue only of the fact, if
such be the case, of the employer having engaged the employee to do work of a
casual nature for him or her on occasions prior to the said week (whether or not the
number of those occasions or the circumstances otherwise touching the said
engagement of the employee are such as to give rise to a reasonable expectation on
his or her part that he or she would be required by the employer to do work for the
employer in the said week).
(2) If an employer does not require an employee to whom this section applies to
work for the employer in a week referred to in subsection (1)—
(a) in a case falling within paragraph (a) of that subsection, at least 25 per cent.
of the contract hours, or
(b) in a case falling within paragraph (b) or (c) of that subsection where work of
the type which the employee is required to make himself or herself available
to do has been done for the employer in that week, at least 25 per cent. of
the hours for which such work has been done in that week,
then the employee shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be entitled—
(i) in case the employee has not been required to work for the employer at all in
that week, to be paid by the employer the pay he or she would have received
if he or she had worked for the employer in that week whichever of the
following is less, namely—
(I) the percentage of hours referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), as the case
may be, or
(II) 15 hours,
or
(ii) in case the employee has been required to work for the employer in that week
less than the percentage of hours referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), as the
case may be (and that percentage of hours is less than 15 hours), to have his
or her pay for that week calculated on the basis that he or she worked for
the employer in that week the percentage of hours referred to in paragraph
(a) or (b), as the case may be.
(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply—
(a) if the fact that the employee concerned was not required to work in the week
in question the percentage of hours referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of
that subsection, as the case may be—
(i) constituted a lay-off or a case of the employee being kept on short-time
for that week, or
(ii) was due to exceptional circumstances or an emergency (including an
accident or the imminent risk of an accident), the consequences of which
could not have been avoided despite the exercise of all due care, or
otherwise to the occurrence of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances
beyond the employer’s control,
or
(b) if the employee concerned would not have been available, due to illness or
for any other reason, to work for the employer in that week the said
percentage of hours.
(4) The reference in subsection (2) (b) to the hours for which work of the type
referred to in that provision has been done in the week concerned shall be construed
as a reference to the number of hours of such work done in that week by another
employee of the employer concerned or, in case that employer has required 2 or more
employees to do such work for him or her in that week and the number of hours of
such work done by each of them in that week is not identical, whichever number of
hours of such work done by one of those employees in that week is the greatest.
(5) References in this section to an employee being required to make himself or
herself available to do work for the employer shall not be construed as including
references to the employee being required to be on call, that is to say to make himself
or herself available to deal with any emergencies or other events or occurrences
which may or may not occur.
(6) Nothing in this section shall affect the operation of a contract of employment
that entitles the employee to be paid wages by the employer by reason, alone, of the
employee making himself or herself available to do, at the times and place concerned,
the work concerned.
Records.
25.—(1) An employer shall keep, at the premises or place where his or her
employee works or, if the employee works at two or more premises or places, the
premises or place from which the activities that the employee is employed to carry
on are principally directed or controlled, such records, in such form, if any, as may
be prescribed, as will show whether the provisions of this F14[Act and, where applicable,
the Activities of Doctors in Training Regulations] are being complied with in
relation to the employee and those records shall be retained by the employer for at
least 3 years from the date of their making.
(2) The Minister may by regulations exempt from the application of subsection (1)
any specified class or classes of employer and regulations under this subsection may
provide that any such exemption shall not have effect save to the extent that specified
conditions are complied with.
(3) An employer who, without reasonable cause, fails to comply with subsection (1)
shall be guilty of an offence.
(4) Without prejudice to subsection (3), where an employer fails to keep records
under subsection (1) in respect of his or her compliance with a particular provision
of this F14[Act or the Activities of Doctors in Training Regulations] in relation to an
employee, the onus of proving, in proceedings before a rights commissioner or the
Labour Court, that the said provision was complied with in relation to the employee
shall lie on the employer.
Refusal by an employee to cooperate with employer in breaching Act.
26.—(1) An employer shall not penalise an employee for having in good faith opposed
by lawful means an act which is unlawful under this F15[Act or the Activities of Doctors
in Training Regulations].
(2) If a penalisation of an employee, in contravention of subsection (1), constitutes
a dismissal of the employee within the meaning of the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977
to 1993, relief may not be granted to the employee in respect of that penalisation
both under this Part and under those Acts.
Complaints to WRC.
27.—(1) In this section “relevant provision” means—
(a) any of the following sections, namely, section 6(2), sections 11 to 23, or section
26,
F16[(aa) any of the following regulations of the Activities of Doctors in Training
Regulations, namely, regulations 5 to 10,]
(b) the provision referred to in section 6(1) of regulations, a collective agreement,
registered employment agreement or employment regulation order referred
to in that section, or
(c) paragraph 9 of the Fifth Schedule.
(2) F17[…]
(3) F18[A decision of an adjudication officer under section 41 of the Workplace
Relations Act 2015 in relation to a complaint of a contravention of a relevant provision
shall do one or more of the following, namely:
(a) declare that the complaint was or, as the case may be, was not well founded,
(b) require the employer to comply with the relevant provision,
(c) require the employer to pay to the employee compensation of such amount
(if any) as is just and equitable having regard to all of the circumstances, but
not exceeding 2 years’ remuneration in respect of the employee’s employment.
]
……
[Decision of Labour Court on appeal from decision referred to in section 27(3)].
F19[28. A decision of the Labour Court under section 44 of the Workplace Relations
Act 2015 on appeal from a decision of an adjudication officer referred to in subsection
(3) of section 27 shall affirm, vary or set aside the decision of the adjudication officer.]
Provisions in relation to outworkers who are employees.
32.—(1) An employer who employs any outworkers shall keep, in the prescribed
form, a register in which he or she shall cause to be entered prescribed particulars
in respect of each such worker for the time being employed by him or her.
(2) The Minister may, by regulations, prohibit an employer from employing
outworkers to do a specified class or classes of work unless the employer complies
with specified conditions in respect of the employment of the outworkers to do the
said work.
(3) An employer who—
(a) fails to comply with subsection (1), or
(b) fails to comply with any condition specified in regulations under subsection
(2) in respect of the employment by him or her of an outworker to do work
of a class specified in such regulations, shall be guilty of an offence.
Prohibition on double employment.
33.—(1) An employer shall not employ an employee to do any work in a relevant
period during which the employee has done work for another employer, except where
the aggregate of the periods for which such an employee does work for each of such
employers respectively in that relevant period does not exceed the period for which
that employee could, lawfully under this F23[Act or the Activities of Doctors in
Training Regulations], be employed to do work for one employer in that relevant
period.
(2) In subsection (1) “relevant period” means a period of—
(a) 24 hours,
(b) 7 days, or
(c) 12 months.
(3) Whenever an employer employs an employee in contravention of subsection
(1), the employer and the employee shall each be guilty of an offence.
(4) Where an employer is prosecuted for an offence under this section it shall be a
good defence for him or her to prove—
(a) that he or she neither knew nor could by reasonable enquiry have known that
the employee concerned had done work for any other employer in the period
of 24 hours, 7 days or 12 months, as the case may be, in respect of which
the prosecution is brought, or
(b) that he or she neither knew nor could by reasonable enquiry have known that
the aggregate of the periods for which the employee concerned did work in
the said period of 24 hours, 7 days or 12 months, as the case may be,
exceeded the period for which he or she could lawfully be employed to do
work for one employer in the said period of 24 hours, 7 days or 12 months,
as the case may be.
Penalties, proceedings, etc.
34.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable on summary
conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500.
(2) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and is proved
to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to
any neglect on the part of, a person being a director, manager, secretary or other
officer of that body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in that capacity,
that person shall also be guilty of an offence and be liable to be proceeded against
and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.
(3) If the contravention in respect of which a person is convicted of an offence under
this Act is continued after the conviction, the person shall be guilty of a further offence
on every day on which the contravention continues and for each such offence the
person shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £500.
(4) Proceedings for an offence under section 8 or a further offence, in relation to
such an offence, under subsection (3) may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister.
(5) Notwithstanding section 10 (4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851,
proceedings for an offence under this Act may be instituted within 12 months from
the date of the offence.
Codes of practice.
35.—(1) In this section
“code of practice” means, in relation to a section of this Act, a code that provides
practical guidance as to the steps that may be taken for the purposes of complying
with the section;
“the Commission” means the Labour Relations Commission.
(2) The Commission may and, at the request of the Minister, shall, prepare a code
of practice for the purposes of any section of this Act (other than section 6 (2)) or, in
the case of a request by the Minister, a section of this Act (other than section 6 (2))
specified in the request.
(3) The Commission, after consultation with the National Authority for Occupational
Safety and Health, shall prepare a code of practice for the purposes of section 6 (2).
(4) In preparing a code of practice referred to in subsection (2) or (3), the Commission
shall invite such organisations representative of employers, such organisations
representative of employees, and such other bodies, as the Commission considers
appropriate to make submissions, whether orally or in writing, to it in relation to the
proposed code of practice and shall have regard to any such submissions made to it,
in response to the invitation, by such organisations or bodies.
(5) The Commission shall submit a copy of a code of practice prepared by it under
this section to the Minister who may—
(a) by order declare the code (which shall be scheduled to the order) to be a code
of practice, or
(b) make such modifications to the code as he or she considers appropriate and
declare the code as so modified (which shall be scheduled to the order) to
be a code of practice,
for the purposes of the section or sections concerned of this Act.
(6) The Minister may, at the request of the Commission or of his or her own volition
after consultation with the Commission, by order—
(a) amend or revoke a code of practice, the subject of an order under subsection
(5) or this subsection (and the code of practice shall, in case it is amended
by the order, be scheduled, in its amended form, to the order),
and
(b) declare, accordingly, the code of practice, as appropriate—
(i) to be no longer a code of practice,
or
(ii) in its form as amended by the order, to be a code of practice,
for the purposes of the section or sections concerned of this Act,
and
(c) revoke, as the case may be, the order concerned under subsection (5) or the
previous order concerned under this subsection.
(7) A failure by a person to observe a code of practice under this section shall not
of itself render that person liable to any civil or criminal proceedings.
(8) In any proceedings under this Act before a court, the Labour Court or a rights
commissioner, a code of practice for the time being declared under subsection (5) or
(6) to be a code of practice for the purposes of one or more sections of this Act shall
be admissible in evidence and any provision of the code which appears to the court,
the Labour Court or rights commissioner, as the case may be, to be relevant to any
question arising in the proceedings shall be taken into account by it, him or her in
determining that question.
Provisions in relation to Protection of Young Persons (Employment)
Act, 1996.
36.—(1) In this section “the Act of 1996” means the Protection of Young Persons
(Employment) Act, 1996.
(2) Nothing in the preceding sections of this Act shall prejudice the provisions of
the Act of 1996.
(3) The obligation of an employer under section 15 of the Act of 1996 to keep the
records referred to in that section at the place where the young person or child
concerned is employed shall, if the young person or child is employed by the
employer at 2 or more places, be construed as an obligation to keep the said records
at the place from which the activities that the young person or child is employed to
carry on are principally directed or controlled.
(4) Subsection (2) of section 22 of the Act of 1996 is hereby amended by—
(a) the insertion in paragraph (a) after “work” of “or from which he or she has
reasonable grounds for supposing the activities that an employee is employed
to carry on are directed or controlled (whether generally or as respects
particular matters)”, and
(b) the insertion in paragraph (b) after “place” of “or any employee the activities
aforesaid of whom are directed or controlled from any such premises or
place”.
Voidance of certain provisions.
37.—Save as expressly provided otherwise in this F24[Act or the Activities of Doctors
in Training Regulations], a provision in an agreement (whether a contract of employment
or not and whether made before or after the commencement F25[or coming
into operation] of the provision concerned of this F24[Act or the Activities of Doctors
in Training Regulations]) shall be void in so far as it purports to exclude or limit the
application of, or is inconsistent with, any provision of this F24[Act or the Activities
of Doctors in Training Regulations].
Amendment of section 51 of Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989.
Powers on Adjudication.
39.—(1) In this section “relevant authority” means a rights commissioner, the
Employment Appeals Tribunal or the Labour Court.
(2) A decision (by whatever name called) of a relevant authority under this Act or
an enactment F27[or statutory instrument] referred to in the Table to this subsection
that does not state correctly the name of the employer concerned or any other
material particular may, on application being made in that behalf to the authority by
any party concerned, be amended by the authority so as to state correctly the name
of the employer concerned or the other material particular.
TABLE
Adoptive Leave Act, 1995
Maternity Protection Act, 1994
Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts, 1973 to 1991
F28[National Minimum Wage Act, 2000
Parental Leave Act, 1998]
Payment of Wages Act, 1991
Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991
Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996
Redundancy Payments Acts, 1967 to 1991
Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994
Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 1993
F29[Parental Leave Act 1998
Protection of Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act 1998
European Communities (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2000 (S.I. No. 488 of
2000)
Carer’s Leave Act 2001
Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001
European Communities (Protection of Employees on the Transfer of Undertakings)
Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 131 of 2003)
Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003]
(3) The power of a relevant authority under subsection (2) shall not be exercised if
it would result in a person who was not given an opportunity to be heard in the
proceedings on foot of which the decision concerned was given becoming the subject
of any requirement or direction contained in the decision.
(4) If an employee wishes to pursue against a person a claim for relief in respect of
any matter under an enactment F30[or statutory instrument] referred to in subsection
(2), or the Table thereto, and has already instituted proceedings under that enactment
F31[or statutory instrument] in respect of that matter, being proceedings in which
the said person has not been given an opportunity to be heard and—
(a) the fact of the said person not having been given an opportunity to be heard
in those proceedings was due to the respondent’s name in those proceedings
or any other particular necessary to identify the respondent having been
incorrectly stated in the notice or other process by which the proceedings
were instituted, and
(b) the said misstatement was due to inadvertence,
then the employee may apply to whichever relevant authority would hear such
proceedings in the first instance for leave to institute proceedings against the said
person (“the proposed respondent”) in respect of the matter concerned under the
said enactment F32[or statutory instrument] and that relevant authority may grant
such leave to the employee notwithstanding that the time specified under the said
enactment F33[or statutory instrument] within which such proceedings may be
instituted has expired:
Provided that that relevant authority shall not grant such leave to that
employee if it is of opinion that to do so would result in an injustice being
done to the proposed respondent.
(5) References in subsection (4) to the institution of proceedings in respect of any
matter under an enactment F34[or statutory instrument] referred to in subsection
(2), or the Table thereto, shall be construed as including references to the presentation
of a complaint, or the referral of a dispute, in respect of the said matter, to the relevant
authority concerned.
Alternative means of claiming relief
40.—(1) As respects a failure to comply with any provision of Part III in relation to
an employee, the employee or, with the consent of the employee, any trade union
of which the employee is a member may, in lieu of presenting a complaint in respect
of such a failure under section 27, include in proceedings to be instituted by him or
her or it in respect of any matter under an enactment referred to in the Table to
section 39 (2) a claim for relief in respect of such a failure and where such a claim is
included the following provisions shall have effect:
(a) subject to the provisions of this section, the provisions of the said enactment
(hereafter in this section referred to as “the relevant enactment”) shall, with
any necessary modifications, apply in like respects to the said claim (hereafter
in this section referred to as “the holidays claim”) and the procedures to be
followed in respect of it (including procedures in respect of appeals) as they
apply to the proceedings otherwise under the enactment,
(b) the relevant authority that hears the said proceedings may grant the same
relief in respect of the holidays claim as a rights commissioner may grant
under section 27 (3) in respect of such a claim and in so far as the grant of
such relief consists of or includes the making of a requirement on the
employer concerned to pay compensation to the employee the limit specified
in section 27 (3) in relation to compensation under that provision shall, in
lieu of any limit specified in the relevant enactment in relation to compensation
that may be required to be paid under that enactment, apply in relation
to such compensation.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) (a)—
(a) any provision of the relevant enactment requiring proceedings under that
enactment to be instituted within a specified period shall not apply to such
proceedings in so far, but only in so far, as they relate to the holidays claim,
(b) subsections (4) and (5) of section 27 shall apply to the hearing of the holidays
claim by the relevant authority concerned as they apply to the hearing of a
complaint under section 27 by a rights commissioner.
(3) In this section “relevant authority” has the same meaning as it has in section
39.
(4) References in this section to the institution of proceedings in respect of any
matter under an enactment referred to in the Table to section 39 (2) shall be construed
in accordance with subsection (5) of section 39.
The text in italics on this page is sourced from lawreform.ie and is re-published under the Licence for Re-Use of Public Sector Information made pursuant to Directive 2003/98/EC Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the re-use of public sector information transposed into Irish law by the European Communities (Re-Use of Public Sector Information) Regulations 2005 to 2015.