S.I. No. 195/1956 - Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1956.

S.I. No. 195 of 1956.

EMPLOYMENT REGULATION ORDER (SUGAR CONFECTIONERY AND FOOD PRESERVING JOINT LABOUR COMMITTEE), 1956.

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 the Employment Regulation Order (Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee), 1955 (hereinafter called " the said Order ") fixing the statutory minimum remuneration and regulating the conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee operates :

AND WHEREAS the Committee has 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 :

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), 1956.

(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 14th July, 1956, and as from that date the said Order shall be revoked.

SCHEDULE.

WORKERS TO WHOM THIS SCHEDULE APPLIES.

1. This Schedule applies to all workers in respect of any time during which they are employed in any branch or process of the trade specified hereunder :—

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

(b) The preparation of 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) above.

(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) to the preparation of articles, referred to in paragraph (b) or to the processes referred to in paragraph (c) above,

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.

STATUTORY MINIMUM REMUNERATION.

2. Piece-Work Basis Time-Rate.

In the case of each worker specified in this Schedule who is employed on piece-work, 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.

MALE WORKERS.

3. Minimum Time Rates.

The minimum time rates shall be as follows :—

In the case of a Male Worker under 22 years of age, the 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 Minimum Time-Rate of 3s. 2½d. per hour. Otherwise the Minimum Time-Rate payable shall be 3s. 1½d. per hour irrespective of age.

4. Piece-Work Basis Time-Rate.

5. Shift-Work Rate.

Male Workers employed under a Shift Work Licence granted by the Minister for Industry and Commerce on a shift which includes any of the hours between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. shall be paid in respect of the whole shift at a rate not less than one-and-one eighth of the appropriate minimum rate as set out in Sections 3 or 4 above.

FEMALE WORKERS.

6. Minimum Time-Rates.

The minimum time rates for female workers shall be as follows :

7. Piece-Work Basis Time Rate.

8. Overtime Rates for Both Male and Female Workers.

For both Male and Female workers and whether the worker is employed on Time-Work, Shift-Work or on Piece-Work, all overtime as defined in Section 10 below shall be paid for at overtime rates and the minimum overtime rates shall be as follows :—

(a) For the first two hours of Daily Overtime the Overtime Rate shall be one-and-a-third times the Minimum Rate otherwise applicable, i.e., Time-and-a-third.

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

(c) For all Weekly Overtime other than Overtime paid for in accordance with sub-sections (a) or (b) of this section, the Overtime rate shall be Time-and-a-third.

STATUTORY CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT.

9. Working Hours.

The normal number of hours to be worked shall be as follows :—

10. Overtime.

(i) Weekly Overtime :

All time worked in any week in excess of 45 hours in the case of a worker of 18 years of age or over or in excess of 40 hours in the case of a worker whose age is less than 18 years shall be weekly overtime.

Provided always that where the 5-day week is in force all time worked on a 6th day shall be treated as overtime unless failure to work 45 hours (or 40 hours in the case of a worker whose age is less than 18 years) during the other five days of the week is due to absence of the worker without leave.

When a Statutory Public Holiday falls on a day on which work would have been done but for the fact that such Holiday did fall on such day, the number of hours which would normally have been worked shall, for the purposes of this section, be reckoned as hours worked subject to the daily maxima prescribed in Part 9 of this Schedule.

(ii) Daily Overtime :

Notwithstanding that the number of hours worked in the week does not exceed 45 in the case of a worker of 18 years of age or over or 40 in the case of a worker whose age is less than 18 years the following excesses shall be daily overtime :—

(a) On the short day : All time worked in excess of 5 hours in the case of a worker of 18 years of age or over or in excess of 4 hours in the case of a worker whose age is less than 18 years of age.

(b) On any day other than the short day : All time worked in excess of 9 hours in the case of a worker of 18 years of age or over or in excess of 8 hours in the case of a worker whose age is less than 18 years of age.

11. Holidays and Holiday Pay.

Workers 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.

CONDITIONS GOVERNING LEARNERSHIP AND GOVERNING THE PAYMENT OF THE SPECIAL LOWER RATES FIXED FOR LEARNERS.

12. Female Learners—Definition.

A Female learner is a female worker

(i) who is employed during the whole or a substantial part of her hours of work in learning any branch or process of the trade specified in Section 1 this Schedule,

(ii) who is provided by her employer with reasonable facilities for learning such branch or process,

(iii) who is employed in an undertaking in which the ratio of female workers with less than two years' experience in the trade to other female workers does not exceed one to three, or exceeds this ratio only as authorised by the Committee in accordance with Section 16 of this Schedule,

(iv) who has not had four years' employment in the trade, and

(v) who has been registered as a learner by the Committee in accordance with Section 19 of this Schedule or in respect of whom application for such registration has been made which has been duly acknowledged by the Committee and is still under consideration or who is on probation in accordance with Section 13 of this Schedule.

13. Probationary Period.

An employer may employ a learner on first employment in the trade without a certificate of registration for a probationary period not exceeding four weeks but in the event of such worker being continued thereafter in employment in the trade the probationary period shall be included in her period of learnership.

14. Previous Employment.

Any worker employed as a Learner, who has previously been employed in any branch of the trade defined in Section 1 of this Schedule shall count the whole period of such previous employment in calculating the period of learnership completed by her for the purpose of determining the time rate at which she is entitled to be paid. Employment prior to the 29th August, 1952, in the making of meat extracts or meat essences or the preparation of meat for sale in a preserved state in tins, pots, bottles and similar receptacles shall also be counted.

15. Continuity of Employment.

Where the employment of a female learner with a particular employer is interrupted by reason of her illness, the temporary cessation of the work on which she is employed, the temporary reduction of the weekly quantity of such work or any other temporary cause not due to her act or default she shall be deemed to have been in the continuous employment of such employer for the purpose of determining the appropriate rate applicable to her provided that such interruption does not exceed thirty days (counting Sundays and other non-working days) and provided that she returns to employment with that particular employer at the end of such interruption.

16. Limitation on Employment of Learners of Less than, Two Years' Experience.

The ratio of female Learners who have had less than two years' employment in the trade to other female workers employed therein shall not exceed one such Learner to three other female workers in the case of any particular employer, but the Committee may, if it is satisfied in any particular case that special facts or circumstances so require, authorise the employment of Learners in excess of that ratio and may register Learners accordingly. An employer shall not be entitled to pay Learners so registered at Learners' rates if subsequent disemployment of workers with two years' experience or more in the trade results in the ratio authorised by the Committee being exceeded.

17. Payment of Learners' Rates.

A worker who is a Learner within the meaning of Section 12 may be paid the special lower rates fixed for Learners in Section 6. Otherwise the rate payable is that for female workers other than Learners.

The registration of a Learner shall not of itself authorise the payment of the worker at Learner's rates unless the other conditions specified in Section 12 are fulfilled.

18. Cancellation of Registration.

The Committee, if it is satisfied that any of the conditions of Section 12 are not complied with in respect of any worker, may cancel the registration of that worker as a Learner. If registration is cancelled the minimum rates to which a worker is entitled are those prescribed for female workers other than Learners.

19. Provisions with respect to Registration.

(i) An employer who wishes to employ a worker at the special lower rates fixed for Learners must apply to the Committee for the registration as a Learner of the worker. Application must be made even though the worker was previously registered as a Learner in the trade and even though she had previously been employed by him as a registered Learner provided that a period of over thirty days has elapsed since such previous employment.

(ii) The employer shall furnish to the Committee such information as it may require to enable it to determine whether the provisions governing learnership as set out in Section 12 are fulfilled.

(iii) The employer shall safely keep the certificate of registration and shall produce it on request to an inspector duly appointed by the Minister for Industry and Commerce under Part IV of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 , or to the Committee. He shall also surrender it to the Learner when she leaves his employment and shall enter on it the date on which she ceases to be employed by him.

20. Appointment of a Sub-Committee.

The Committee may, if it thinks fit, refer to a Sub-Committee appointed under the provisions of paragraph 8 of the Second Schedule to the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 , applications made to it for the registration of Learners and may also, if it thinks fit, delegate to the Sub-Committee so appointed any or all of its powers and duties thereunder and the expression " Committee " used in Section 16 above shall include the Sub-Committee so appointed.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Court this 10th day of July, 1956.

(Signed) E. DE BURCA.

A person authorised under Section 18

of the Act to authenticate the Seal of the

Court.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

This Instrument fixes new minimum rates of pay as from the 14th July, 1956, for workers employed in the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Trade. It is made by the Labour Court on the recommendation of the Sugar Confectionery and Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee.