Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act , 1977

1 Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“agreement” means a collective agreement, an employment regulation order or a registered employment agreement;

“child” means a person who is under the school leaving age;

“collective agreement” means an agreement by or on behalf of an employer, on the one hand, and by or on behalf of an entitled trade union or entitled trade unions representative of the employees to whom the agreement relates, on the other hand;

“employ” means employment under a contract of service or a contract of apprenticeship;

“employee” means a young person or a child as the context may require;

“employment regulation order” means an employment regulation order within the meaning of Part IV of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946;

“entitled trade union” means a body entitled under the Trade Union Act, 1941, to carry on negotiations for the fixing of wages or other conditions of employment;

“hours of work” does not include periods of rest during which the employee is not required to be available for work;

“inspector” means a person appointed by the Minister to be an inspector for the purposes of this Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Labour;

“normal working hours” has the meaning assigned to it in section 7 of this Act;

“outworker” has the meaning assigned to it by the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936;

“registered employment agreement” means a registered employment agreement within the meaning of Part III of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946;

“representatives of employees” means such trade unions as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of the employees in relation to whom the expression is used, or where there is no such trade union, such persons as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of such employees;

“representatives of employers” means such associations as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of the employers in relation to whom the expression is used, or where there is no such association, such persons as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of such employers;

“the school leaving age” means the age at which the School Attendance Act, 1926, ceases to apply;

“week” means a period of seven consecutive days;

“young person” means a person who has reached the school-leaving age but is less than eighteen years of age.

(2) A person holding office under the State, and a person in the service of a local authority, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be employed by the State or the local authority, as the case may be.

2 Industrial work.

2.—(1) In this Act “industrial work” means—

(a) industrial work within the meaning of section 3 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 (as amended by section 2 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1944),

(b) work carried out in mines,

(c) work in the transport of persons or goods, and

(d) such work as the Minister may by order under subsection (2) of this section declare to be industrial work for the purposes of this Act.

(2) The Minister may by order declare any form of work to be industrial work for the purposes of this Act.

(3) The Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this section including an order under this subsection.

3 Non-application of Act.

3.—(1) This Act, other than sections 4, 5 (1) (a), 5 (1) (b), 5 (4) and 6, shall not apply to work as—

(a) a fisherman,

(b) a lighthouse or lightship keeper,

(c) an outworker, or

(d) a seafarer.

(2) This Act, other than sections 4, 5, 8, 14 and 15, shall not apply to work in the Defence Forces.

(3) The Minister may by order extend any provision of this Act to any work to which this Act does not apply.

(4) The Minister may by order revoke or amend an order under this section including an order under this subsection.

4 Minimum age for employment.

4.—(1) Subject to the subsequent provisions of this section an employer shall not employ a child to do work.

(2) An employer may, subject to subsections (3) and (4) of this section, employ a child who is over the age of fourteen years to do light non-industrial work which—

(a) is not harmful to the health or normal development of the child, and

(b) is not such work as will affect the attendance of the child at school or his capacity to benefit from the instruction given him therein.

(3) (a) Whenever an employer employs a child during school terms pursuant to subsection (2) of this section, the hours of work of the child shall be outside school hours and shall be—

(i) not more than two hours on any day, other than a Saturday or a Sunday,

(ii) not more than fourteen hours in any week,

(iii) not more than four hours on a Saturday or a Sunday:

Provided that—

(A) if a child is required to work for more than 2 hours on a Saturday, he shall not work on the next following Sunday, or

(B) if a child is required to work for more than 2 hours on a Sunday, he shall not have worked on the immediately preceding Saturday.

(b) This subsection shall remain in force only until the expiration of the period of two years beginning with the coming into force of this Act unless it is continued in force by an order under subsection (5) of this section.

(4) Whenever an employer employs a child during school holidays pursuant to subsection (2) of this section, the hours of work of such child shall be—

(i) not more than seven hours in any day, or

(ii) not more than thirty-five hours in any week:

Provided that during the period of the school summer holidays, the child does not do any work for a period of not less than fourteen consecutive days.

(5) The Minister may by order at any time when subsection (3) of this section is in force provide that that subsection shall continue in force for a period not exceeding twelve months from the commencement of the order.

(6) The Minister may by order—

(a) vary the hours of work specified in subsections (3) and (4) of this section,

(b) specify that children may not be employed on a particular day or during a particular period, and

(c) revoke or amend an order made under this subsection including an order under this paragraph.

(7) An employer who fails to comply with the provisions of this section and the parent or guardian of a child who aids or abets an employer in the contravention of this section shall each be guilty of an offence.

(8) The Minister may by order declare any form of work specified in the order to be work which is not light non-industrial work and any work which stands so declared shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section, to be work to do which a child shall not be employed.

(9) The Minister may by order declare any form of work specified in the order to be work which is light non-industrial work.

(10) An employer who employs a child to do work which is specified in an order under subsection (8) of this section to be work which is not light non-industrial work shall be guilty of an offence.

(11) The Minister may by order revoke or amend—

(a) an order made under subsection (8) or (9) of this section, or

(b) an order under this subsection.

5 Duties of employer of young person or child.

5.—(1) Any employer who employs a young person or child to work for him shall—

(a) before employing the young person or child, require the production of a copy of the birth certificate of, or other satisfactory evidence of the age of, the young person or child, as the case may be,

(b) before employing a child, obtain the written permission of the parent or guardian of the child, and

(c) maintain a register, or other satisfactory record containing the following particulars of every young person or child employed by him—

(i) the full name of the young person or child;

(ii) the date of birth of the young person or child;

(iii) the time the young person or child commences work each day;

(iv) the time the young person or child finishes work each day;

(v) the rate of wages or salary paid to the young person or child for his normal working hours per day, per week, per month or per year, as the case may be;

(vi) the total amount paid to each young person or child by way of wages or salary.

(2) Where for the purposes of this section, an employer requires the production of the birth certificate of a young person or a child, any person shall, on presenting a written requisition in such form and containing such particulars as may be directed by the Minister for Health and on payment of the appointed fee, be entitled to obtain a certified copy of the entry of the birth of that person in the register of births under the hand of the registrar or superintendent registrar or other person having the custody thereof, and forms for such requisition shall on request be supplied without any charge by every registrar of births and by every superintendent registrar or other person having the custody of the register.

(3) The Minister for Health may, with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance, by regulations appoint fees for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section.

(4) An employer who fails to comply with the provisions of this section and the parent or guardian of a young person or child who aids or abets an employer in the contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

6 Power of Minister to raise minimum age for employment.

6.—The Minister may, after consultation with representatives of employers interested in the class of work involved and with representatives of employees so interested, in the case of any work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to endanger the health, welfare, safety or morals of employees, by order, raise the minimum age at which an employee may be employed to do such work.

7 Normal working hours.

7.—(1) In this Act “normal working hours” in relation to an employee means—

(a) if the employee is a young person over the age of sixteen years—

(i) eight hours in any day,

and

(ii) forty hours in any week;

(b) if the employee is a young person under the age of sixteen years—

(i) eight hours in any day,

and

(ii) thirty-seven and one-half hours in any week.

(2) The Minister may by order vary normal working hours.

(3) The Minister may by order revoke or amend an order under this section including an order under this subsection.

(4) Normal working hours may be varied by an agreement; provided that, under any such agreement the number of hours to be worked by the employee in any period specified in the agreement does not exceed an average of forty hours per week, if the employee is a young person over the age of sixteen years, or an average of thirty-seven and one-half hours per week, if the employee is a young person under the age of sixteen years.

8 Maximum hours of work for young persons under the age of sixteen years.

8.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an employer shall not permit an employee who is a young person under the age of sixteen years in his employment to work for him for more than—

(a) eight hours in any day, or

(b) forty hours in any week.

(2) An employer who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) The Minister may by order vary the hours of work specified in subsection (1) of this section.

(4) The Minister may by order revoke or amend an order under this section including an order under this subsection.

9 Maximum hours of work for young persons over the age of sixteen years.

9.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an employer shall not permit an employee who is a young person over the age of sixteen years in his employment to work for him for more than—

(a) nine hours in any day, or such other number of hours as may be specified in an agreement applying to the young person;

(b) forty-five hours in any week, or such other number of hours as may be specified in an agreement applying to the young person;

(c) one hundred and seventy-two hours in any period of four consecutive weeks;

(d) two thousand hours in any year.

(2) The hours of work specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of this section may be varied by an agreement or by regulations made by the Minister: provided that, under any such agreement, or by such regulations the maximum number of hours to be worked by the young person shall not exceed one hundred and seventy-two hours in any period of four consecutive weeks and two thousand hours in any period of one year.

(3) An employer who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(4) The Minister may by order vary the hours of work specified in subsection (1) of this section.

(5) The Minister may by order revoke or amend an order under this section including an order under this subsection.

10 Overtime pay.

10.—(1) In this section—

“overtime” means any hours worked in excess of normal working hours;

“overtime pay” means the rate of pay which an employee is entitled to in respect of normal working hours increased by not less than twenty-five per cent.

(2) Whenever an employer requires an employee to work overtime, the employer shall pay the employee overtime pay for any time in respect of which the employee works overtime.

(3) An employer who contravenes subsection (2) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

11 Vocational training in normal working hours.

11.—Any time spent with the consent of his employer by a young person in vocational training during normal working hours shall be deemed to be hours worked by him for the purposes of section 8 and 9 of this Act.

12 Intervals for rest.

12.—(1) In this section “stated number of hours” in relation to an employee means—

(a) five hours if the employee is a young person

(b) four hours if the employee is a child.

(2) An employer shall not permit an employee employed by him to do for him any work for any period exceeding the stated number of hours in any day unless the employee ceases work after a period not exceeding the stated number of hours from the time at which he commenced work and does not again commence work until after the expiration of a period of at least half an hour.

(3) An employee shall not be entitled to be paid in respect of the period of at least half an hour specified in subsection (2) of this section.

(4) An employer shall not permit an employee employed by him to do any work for more than one and one-half hours after the expiration of normal working hours unless immediately before commencing to do such work after the expiration of normal working hours the employee has ceased work for a period of at least half an hour.

(5) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, an employee shall not be entitled to be paid in respect of the period of at least half an hour specified in subsection (4) of this section.

(6) The period of half an hour specified in subsection (4) of this section may be varied by an agreement provided that the agreement provides that the employee cease work for not less than fifteen minutes and that the employee be paid for the period specified in the agreement.

(7) An employer who contravenes this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(8) Subsections (2) and (3) of this section shall not apply to an employee who is employed to do industrial work (within the meaning of section 3 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 (as amended by section 2 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1944)) on shift work.

113 Entitlement of employee to rest.

13.—(1) When an employee is employed by an employer to work on more than five days in a week and the employee is also required to do more than three hours work on a Sunday, the employer shall ensure that the conditions of employment of every such employee are such that the employee will have at least twenty-four consecutive hours rest without pay in every period of seven days.

(2) This section shall not apply to an employee who is employed by an employer to do industrial work within the meaning of section 3 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 (as amended by section 2 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1944).

(3) An employer who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

14 Restriction on the employment of young persons at night.

14.—(1) An employer shall neither permit a young person to do any work at any time between the hour of 10 p.m. on any day and the hour of 6 a.m. on the following day nor permit a young person to do any work until the expiration of twelve hours from the time at which he ceased to do work on the previous day.

(2) This section shall not apply to an employee who is employed by an employer to do industrial work within the meaning of section 3 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 (as amended by section 2 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1944).

(3) An employer who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

15 Restriction on the employment of children at night.

15.—(1) An employer shall neither permit a child to do work at any time between the hour of 8 p.m. on any day and 8 a.m. on the following day nor permit a child to do any work until the expiration of fourteen hours from the time at which he ceased to do work on the previous day.

(2) An employer who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

16 Prohibition of double employment.

16.—(1) An employer shall not permit an employee to do for him any form of work on any day on which the employee has done any form of work for any other employer, except where the aggregate of the periods for which the employee does work for such employers on that day does not exceed the period for which such employee could lawfully be employed to do work for one employer on that day.

(2) Whenever an employer employs an employee in contravention of this section, the employer shall be guilty of an offence under this section and the employee, if he is a young person, shall also be guilty of an offence under this section.

(3) The parent or guardian of an employee who aids or abets an employer in the contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence.