The Purpose of the Industrial Relations Act of 1976
The Industrial Relations Act of 1976 is legislation passed by the government of Ireland to amend provisions set down in the Industrial Relations Act of 1969 and earlier industrial relations legislation. The act repeals a number of previous acts and adds extensions to the 1969 act, which remains the principal industrial relations legislation in Ireland. Much of the content of the 1976 act deals with changes to industrial relations law applying to agricultural workers.
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Repealed Acts
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Section 11 of the act repeals The Agricultural Workers (Holidays) Acts, passed between 1950 and 1970. These acts set out the rights of agricultural workers in Ireland to set holiday entitlements, including public holiday entitlements. Because the 1973 Holidays (Employees) act set holiday entitlements for all employees, including agricultural workers, the provisions of previous acts applying only to agricultural workers were no longer applicable. Section 6 of the act repeals The Agricultural Wages Acts passed between 1936 and 1969. However, orders made to set minimum wages for agricultural workers, which were already in force when the 1976 act became law, were still recognized. In the 1969 act, section 66 defined the term "worker." Section 3 of the 1976 act repealed section 66 of the 1969 act as the definition in the 1969 act no longer applied.
Workers
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The act of 1976 contains a new definition for the term "worker," which replaces definitions found in previous acts. Section 2 of the act contains the new definition, and states that a worker is any person of 15 or over who is contracted to an employer. The new definition includes manual workers and clerical workers, and the contract with the employer can be agreed orally and does not have to be a written contract. If you are under a contract of apprenticeship, you are still defined as a worker under the definition contained in this section of the act. The definition does not apply to persons who work for the state, national school teachers or local authority officers.
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Joint Labor Committees
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The principal industrial relations act in Ireland is the 1946 act. This act established joint labor committees to set minimum wages and employment conditions. The 1976 act amends the principal act, and in section 5 states that the Minister for Labor and the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries can appoint no more than two independent members of a joint labor committee plus the committee chairman. The Labor Court must appoint the employer representatives and employee representatives on joint labor committees. The number of employer and employee representatives must be equal.
The Labor Court
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The Labor Court consists of a number of divisions, with each division representing a different industrial sector. The Labor Court is responsible for helping to find resolutions to industrial disputes concerning a number of areas, such as safety at work, minimum wages and equality in the workplace. A Labor Court Division must consist of a chairman, who is a deputy chairman of the full Labor Court, plus one member representing employers and one representing employees, according to section 8 of the 1976 act.
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