S.I. No. 302/1977 - Employment Regulation Order No. 2 (Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee), 1977

S.I. No. 302 of 1977.

EMPLOYMENT REGULATION ORDER No. 2 (AGRICULTURAL WORKERS JOINT LABOUR COMMITTEE), 1977.

WHEREAS the Labour Court (hereinafter called "the Court") pursuant to the provisions of Section 43 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 , (hereinafter called "the Act") made an Employment Regulation Order dated the 1st March 1977 ( S.I. No. 61 of 1977 ) (hereinafter called "the said Order") fixing the statutory minimum remuneration and regulating the statutory conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee (hereinafter called "the Committee") operates;

AND WHEREAS the Committee has submitted to the Court a proposal for revoking the said Order;

AND WHEREAS the Committee has also submitted to the Court the proposals set out in the Schedule hereto for fixing the statutory minimum rates of remuneration and regulating the statutory conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Committee operates;

AND WHEREAS the provisions of Section 43 of the Act have been compiled with;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Court, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Section 43 of the Act hereby orders as follows:—

1.

2.

3.

SCHEDULE.

STATUTORY MINIMUM REMUNERATION AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS.

PART 1. MINIMUM RATES OF WAGES.

Section 1.—Minimum Time-Rates other than as provided in Section 2.

Section 2.—Minimum Time Rates applicable only in respect of work done under a contract of employment for a definite period of five months or longer.

PART II. NORMAL WORKING HOURS.

Section 1.—The normal number of hours of work for workers for whom the statutory minimum rate of wages is either a rate per week or a rate per hour shall be as follows:—

PROVIDED THAT

• (i) All time worked on Sunday and on Public Holidays or substituted Church Holidays and all time worked after one o'clock P.M. on the Short Day shall be regarded as Overtime to which the appropriate overtime rates as set out in Section 3 hereof shall apply.

• (ii) The overtime rates shall in the case of all workers be payable during the WINTER period in respect of all time worked in excess of 8½ hours on any day notwithstanding that the number of hours worked in the week does not exceed the declared normal number of hours of work for that week.

• (iii) The overtime rates shall be payable during the SUMMER period, in the case of workers age 17 years and over, in respect of all time worked in excess of 9 hours on any day, and in the case of workers under age 17 years, in respect of all time worked in excess of 8½ hours on any day, notwithstanding that the number of hours worked in the week does not exceed the declared normal number of hours of works for that week.

• (iv) The overtime rates shall be payable in respect of all time worked in any week (Monday to Saturday inclusive) in excess of the declared normal number of hours of work for that week.

Section 2.—The monthly rates shall cover all time worked in the month exclusive of time worked after one o'clock P.M. on the Short Day, time worked on Sunday and time worked on Public Holidays or substituted Church Holidays.

For workers for whom the statutory minimum rate of wages is a rate per month all time worked after one o'clock P.M. on the Short Day and all time worked on Sunday and on Public Holidays or substituted Church Holidays shall be regarded as Overtime to which the appropriate overtime rates as set out in Section 3 hereof shall apply.

Section 3.—The minimum rates for overtime to apply in respect of time worked in excess of the normal number of hours of work shall be as follows:—

• (i) For all time worked on any day other than Sunday in excess of the normal number of hours of work and for all time worked after one o'clock P.M. on the Short Day the overtime rate shall be one-and-a-third times the minimum time-rate otherwise applicable i.e. time-and-one-third.

• (ii) For all time worked on Public Holidays or substituted Church Holidays the overtime rate shall be one-and-a-third times the minimum time-rate otherwise applicable i.e. time-and-one-third.

• (iii) For all time worked in any week (Monday to Saturday inclusive) in excess of the declared normal number of hours for the week the overtime rate shall be one-and-a-third times the minimum time-rate otherwise applicable i.e. time-and-one-third.

• (iv) For all time worked on Sunday the overtime rate shall be one and two third times the minimum time-rate otherwise applicable i.e. time-and-two-thirds.

• (v) For workers for whom the statutory minimum rate of wages is a rate per month the overtime rate shall be calculated on the basis of a rate equivalent to the minimum time-rate applicable to a worker of corresponding age in the same Zone for whom the statutory minimum rate is either a rate per week or a rate per hour and in respect of time worked other than on Sunday shall be time-and-one-third and in respect of time worked on Sunday shall be time-and-two thirds.

Section 4.—Unless otherwise agreed or in the absence of agreement or in the absence of a statement under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973 , Saturday shall be the Short Day.

PART III. BENEFITS OR ADVANTAGES.

Section 1.—Where any agricultural employer provides any agricultural worker in his employment with all or any of the benefits or advantages specified in Section 2 hereof, such benefits or advantages shall for the purpose of computing the remuneration paid to such agricultural worker, be reckoned as payment of wages in lieu of payment in cash and the value at which any such benefit or advantage so provided is to be so reckoned shall be as defined in the said Section 2.

Section 2.—Benefits of advantages and value at which they are to be reckoned as payment of wages in lieu of payment in cash.

PART IV. HOLIDAYS.

Annual leave shall be granted in accordance with Holidays (Agricultural Workers) Regulations, 1977 ( S.I. No. 64 of 1977 ) subject to the following amendments, which will be effective from 1st November, 1977.

"Wet-time" means all absences from work due to inclement weather where the employee is not paid full wages.

"Leave year" means a year beginning on any first day of January.

• (2) Annual leave shall be equivalent to three working weeks where there are twelve qualifying months of service and subject to the next subsection, to proportionately less where there are eleven or fewer such months.

• (3) Annual leave shall also be equivalent to three working weeks where the employee works for the employer at least 1,400 hours (or 1,300 hours if under 18 years of age) during the leave year unless it is a leave year during which he changes his employment.

• (4) A day which, apart from this subsection, would be a day of annual leave shall, if it is a day of illness in respect of which a certificate of a registered medical practitioner is furnished, be taken as not being a day of annual leave.

• (5)
• (a) Where there are eight or more qualifying months of service annual leave shall, subject to any registered employment agreement, or agreement with the employee's trade union, include an unbroken period equivalent to two working weeks,

• (b) When ascertaining for the purposes of this subsection, whether a period is equivalent to two working weeks, the fact that a day is a public holiday or a day of illness shall be disregarded.

• (6) Where board, lodging or board and lodging is part of remuneration, the employee may, subject to being given double pay, elect not to take annual leave.

• (7)
• (a) In this section "qualifying month of service" means any month (January to December) during which the employee has worked for the employer at least 120 hours (or 110 hours if under 18 years of age).

• (b) For the purposes of subsection (3) and of the previous paragraph—

• (i) a day of annual leave shall be taken as if the employee worked thereon the hours he would have worked if not on leave and

• (ii) wet time shall be taken to be hours worked up to a maximum, in the case of subsection (3), of 480 hours in the leave year or, in the case of the previous paragraph, 40 hours in the month.

4.

• (a) In the case of day to day and part-time employments, the employee must, for entitlement under this section, have worked for the employer for at least 120 hours (or 110 hours if under 18 years of age) during the five weeks ending on the day before the public holiday.

• (b) For the purpose of this section—

• (i) time off allowed by Act or Order shall be taken to be time worked

• (ii) wet time shall be taken to be hours worked up to a maximum of 50 hours.

5.

• (a) Where employment on a day to day basis ceases and the employee, annual leave not being due to him, has, during the 30 days ending on the day before cessor of employment, worked for the employer for not less than 120 hours (or 110 hours if under 18 years of age), the employer shall pay compensation to him consisting of an extra day and a quarter's pay.

• (b) Where employment ceases during the five weeks ending on the day before a public holiday and the employee has, during the part of that period before the cesser, worked for the employer for at least 120 hours (or 110 hours if under 18 years of age), the employer shall pay compensation to him in respect of the public holiday consisting of an extra day's pay.

6.

• "(b) to the agricultural worker and his employer making such arrangements as they think fit for the allowance of holidays and

• (c) to the condition that holidays to be allowed in respect of any year or any period of a year shall be allowed before the end of the year, and, if the employment terminates during the year, the holidays shall be allowed before such termination".

7.

• "(4) Where it is the custom for an agricultural employer to grant to an agricultural worker a day's leave with full pay to attend sporting or other events held on a day other than a Sunday, a public holiday or a Church holiday, not more than six such days may be regarded as annual holidays for the purposes of this Act".

PART V. WAGES AREAS.

In this Order—

PART VI. WORKERS TO WHOM THIS ORDER APPLIES.

The minimum remuneration and conditions of employment set out in this Order shall apply, subject to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 to 1976, to all agricultural workers. Up to and including 31st December 1977 all workers who are wholly or mainly employed on the picking, grading and packing of mushrooms are excluded from the provisions of the Order. On and from 1st January 1978 all such workers are included in the scope of the Order except those whose wages and conditions are regulated by a registered employment agreement.

For the purposes of this Order—

AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYER means a person who employs other persons as agricultural workers;

AGRICULTURAL WORKER means a person employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship whose work under the contract is or includes work in agriculture but does not include a person whose work under any such contract is mainly domestic service;

AGRICULTURE includes horticulture, the production of any consumable produce which is grown for sale or for consumption or other use, dairy farming, poultry farming, the use of land as grazing, meadow or pasture gardens, nursery grounds or sports grounds, the caring for or the rearing or training of animals and any other incidental activities connected with agriculture.

PART VII. GENERAL.

In this Order—

The term "WINTER" means, as regards workers for whom the statutory minimum remuneration is either a rate per week or a rate per hour, the period commencing on the first Monday of November in any year and terminating on the Sunday immediately preceding the first Monday of March in the next succeeding year and, as regards workers for whom the statutory minimum remuneration is a rate per month, the period commencing on the first day of October in any year and terminating on the last day of February in the next succeeding year;

the term "SUMMER" means, as regards workers for whom the statutory minimum remuneration is either a rate per week or a rate per hour, the period commencing on the first Monday of March in any year and terminating on the Sunday immediately preceding the first Monday of November in the same year and, as regards workers for whom the statutory minimum remuneration is a rate per month, the period commencing on the first day of March in any year and terminating on the last day of September in the same year.

Where a rate of remuneration (hereinafter called the winter rate) is fixed by this Order as the rate of remuneration in respect of work done by an agricultural worker in winter and a different rate of remuneration (hereinafter called the summer rate) is fixed by this Order as the rate of remuneration in respect of work done by such agricultural worker in summer, then for the purpose of calculating the amount of any sum payable as remuneration to such agricultural worker for work done partly in winter and partly in summer, the winter rate shall be the rate of remuneration for so much of such work as may be done in winter, and the summer rate shall be the rate of remuneration for so much of such work as may be done in summer.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Labour Court this 23rd day of September, 1977.

C. COYNE.

A person authorised under Section 18 of the Industrial

Relations Act, 1946, to authenticate the Seal of the Court.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

This Instrument fixes with effect as from 26th September, 1977 statutory minimum rates of remuneration and statutory conditions of employment of agricultural workers, as defined by the Industrial Relations Act, 1976 . It has special provision in respect of workers employed wholly or mainly on the picking, grading and packing of mushrooms with effect from 1st January, 1978. It is made by the Labour Court on the recommendation of the Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee.