S.I. No. 82/1948 - Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1948.

S.I. No. 82 of 1948.

EMPLOYMENT REGULATION ORDER (SUGAR CONFECTIONERY AND FOOD PRESERVING JOINT LABOUR COMMITTEE), 1948.

WHEREAS the Minister for Industry and Commerce, under the provisions of the Trade Boards Acts, 1909 and 1918, made an order dated the 5th day of March, 1946, confirming the variation of minimum rates of wages for male and female workers in the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade (hereinafter called " the said Order ") :

AND WHEREAS the said order is deemed to be an Employment Regulation Order by virtue of the provisions of Section 54 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 (hereinafter called " the Act") :

AND WHEREAS the said order was amended by the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee Employment Regulation Order, 1947 :

AND WHEREAS the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee (hereinafter called " the Committee ") has submitted to the Labour Court (hereinafter called " the Court ") proposals for revoking the said order as amended :

AND WHEREAS the Committee has also submitted to the Court the proposals set out in the Schedule hereto for fixing the minimum rates of remuneration, and regulating the conditions of employment, of workers in relation to whom the Committee operates, in substitution for the rates and conditions set out in the said order as amended :

AND WHEREAS the provisions of section 43 of the act have been complied with :

NOW, THEREFORE, the Court, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 43 of the act, hereby orders as follows :

(1) This order may be cited as the Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1948.

(2) Effect is hereby given to the proposals set out in the Schedule hereto.

(3) The provisions set out in the Schedule hereto shall have effect as from the 15th day of March, 1948 and as from that date the said order as amended shall be revoked.

SCHEDULE.

PART I.

GENERAL MINIMUM TIME-RATES AND PIECE-WORK BASIS TIME-RATE FOR MALE WORKERS.

Section I.—General Minimum Time-Rates.

In the case of a Male Worker under 22 years of age, the General Minimum Time-Rates shall be payable subject to the condition that the worker is employed under conditions which afford a reasonable prospect of advancement to the General Minimum Time-Rate of 2s. 2½d. per hour. Otherwise the General Minimum Time-Rate payable shall be 2s. 1½d. per hour irrespective of age.

Section III.—Shift Work. In the case of Workers employed between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. under a Shift Work Licence granted by the Minister for Industry and Commerce the minimum rates of wages shall be one and one-eighth of the appropriate minimum rates set out in Sections I. and II. above.

PART II.

GENERAL MINIMUM TIME-RATES AND PIECE-WORK BASIS TIME-RATE FOR FEMALE WORKERS.

Section II.—General Minimum Time-Rates for Female Learners as Defined in Part V of This Schedule.

PART III.

NORMAL WORKING HOURS AND OVERTIME RATES.

Section I.—The normal number of hours to be worked by workers in relation to whom the Committee operates shall be as follows :—

Provided That—Overtime Rates shall be payable where on any day the number of hours worked exceeds the declared normal number of hours of work for that day, notwithstanding that the number of hours worked in the week does not exceed the declared normal number of hours of work for the week.

Section II.—The Minimum Rates for Overtime to apply in respect of hours worked by Male and Female Workers, whether employed on Time-Work or on Piece-Work, in excess of the declared normal number of hours of work shall be as follows :—

(a) For the first two hours of Overtime on any day the Overtime Rate shall be one-and-a-quarter times the Minimum Rate otherwise applicable—i.e., Time-and-a-quarter.

(b) For Overtime after the first two hours of Overtime on any day the Overtime Rate shall be one-and-a-half times the Minimum Rate otherwise applicable—i.e., Time-and-a-half.

(c) For all hours worked in any week in excess of the declared normal number of hours of work for the week, the Overtime Rate shall be Time-and-a-quarter, except in so far as the higher Overtime Rate is payable under the provisions of paragraph (b) of this Section.

PART IV.

HOLIDAYS AND HOLIDAY REMUNERATION.

Workers in relation to whom the Committee operates and who qualify for annual leave under Section 10 of the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1939 , shall, in addition to the seven consecutive whole holidays prescribed therein, be granted a further period of seven consecutive whole holidays, and the payment in respect of this further period shall be calculated in the same manner as that for the statutory period provided for by that Act.

PART V.

CONDITIONS GOVERNING LEARNERSHIP.

Section I.—A Female Learner is a female worker who :—

(a) Is employed during the whole or a substantial part of the hours of work in learning any branch or process of the Trade by an Employer who provides the Learner with reasonable facilities for learning such branch or process, and

(b) Has received a certificate to the effect that she is a member of the Learner class in the Trade, or has made an application for such certificate which has been acknowledged and is still under consideration.

Provided That—

(i) An Employer may employ a Learner on first employment in the Trade, as defined in this Schedule, without a certificate of registration for a probationary period not exceeding four weeks, but in the event of such Learner being continued thereafter in the employment, the probationary period shall be included in the period of Learnership.

(ii) A Learner shall cease to be a Learner, and shall become entitled to the Minimum Time-Rate payable to female workers other than Learners, on the completion of four years' employment in the Trade.

(iii) Any worker employed as a Learner who has previously been employed in any branch of the Trade, as defined in this Schedule, shall count the whole period of such previous employment in calculating the period of Learnership completed by her and for the purpose of claiming the time-rate at which she is entitled to be paid.

(iv) An application for a Learner's Certificate must be made to the Joint Labour Committee in respect of every worker whom it is desired to employ at the special lower rates fixed for Learners. Unless a Learner's Certificate has been obtained, or an application therefor has been made which has been acknowledged and is still under consideration, and the other conditions of learnership laid down in this Schedule are complied with, the minimum rate payable shall be that fixed for female workers other than Learners.

(v) Notwithstanding compliance with the conditions contained in this. Part of the Schedule, a worker shall not be deemed to be a Learner if she works in a room used for dwelling purposes, and is not in the employment of her parent or guardian.

Section II.—The issue of Certificates to Female Learners shall be governed by the following conditions relative to the provision of reasonable facilities for learning the Trade :—

(1) The proportion of Learners who have had less than two years' employment in the Trade, to other female workers employed therein shall not, as a general rule, exceed one such Learner to three other such female workers in the case of any particular employer, and the issue of Learners' Certificates shall be restricted accordingly.

(2) Where, however, the Joint Labour Committee is satisfied in any particular case that special facts or circumstances so require, the Committee may authorise the issue of Learners' Certificates in excess of the proportion above specified.

PART VI.

DEFINITION OF WORKERS.

The above Statutory Minimum Remuneration and Statutory Conditions of Employment shall apply, subject to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 , and of this Order, to all workers in respect of any time during which they are employed in any Branch of the Trade specified in the Trade Boards (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade) Special Order, 1945, that is to say :—

(a) the making of sugar confectionery, cocoa, chocolate, jam, marmalade, preserved fruits, fruit and table jellies, meat extracts, meat essences, sauces and pickles.

(b) the preparation of meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables and fruit for sale in a preserved state in tins, pots, bottles and similar receptacles,

(c) the processes of wrapping, boxing, parcelling, bottling, filling, packing, labelling, warehousing and despatching when such processes are carried out in connection with any making or preparation referred to in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of this Schedule.

(d) all operations (including, in particular, the cleaning of premises, utensils and plant) incidental or appertaining to the making of articles referred to in paragraph (a) of this Schedule, to the preparation of articles referred to in paragraph (b) of this Schedule, or to the processes referred to in paragraph (c) of this Schedule,

but excluding—

(i) maintenance work of all descriptions (including the maintenance of steam and power),

(ii) transport,

(iii) non-industrial work, and

(iv) the covering and filling of biscuits, wafers and cakes with chocolate or sugar confectionery.

PART VII.

GENERAL

In the case of each worker specified in this Schedule who is employed on piecework, each piece-rate must be such as will yield, in the circumstances of the case, to an ordinary worker not less than the Piece-Work Basis Time-Rate. In determining whether any piece-rate satisfies this condition, regard must be had only to the earnings of ordinary workers, i.e., workers of ordinary skill and experience in the class of work in question, and not to the earnings of Learners or infirm workers or workers of greater or less than ordinary skill and experience.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Court this 4th day of March, 1948.

(Signed), T. J. CAHILL.

A person authorised under Section 18

of the Act to authenticate the Seal

of the Court.