Employment Equality Act, 1977

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Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“the Act of 1946” means the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 ;

“the Act of 1974” means the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act, 1974 ;

“act” includes a deliberate omission;

“advertisement” includes every form of advertisement, whether to the public or not and whether in a newspaper or other publication, on television or radio or by display of a notice or by any other means, and references to the publishing of advertisements shall be construed accordingly;

“the Agency” means the Employment Equality Agency established by section 34;

“close relative” means a wife, husband, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, brother or sister;

“the Court” means the Labour Court;

“dismissal” shall be taken to include the termination by an employee of his contract of employment with his employer (whether prior notice of termination was or was not given to the employer) in circumstances in which, because of the conduct of the employer, the employee was or would have been entitled to terminate the contract without giving such notice, or it was or would have been reasonable for him to do so, and “dismissed” shall be construed accordingly;

“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under (or, in the case of a contract which has been terminated, worked under) a contract of employment with an employer, whether the contract is (or was) for manual labour, clerical work or otherwise, is (or was) expressed or implied, oral or in writing, and whether it is (or was) a contract of service or apprenticeship or otherwise, and includes a civil servant of the State or of the Government and an officer or servant of a local authority within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1941 , an officer or servant of a harbour authority, health board, vocational education committee or committee of agriculture, and cognate words or expressions shall be construed accordingly;

“employer”, in relation to an employee, means the person by whom the employee is (or, in a case where the employment has ceased, was) employed under a contract of employment, and for the purposes of this definition a civil servant of the State or of the Government shall be deemed to be employed by the State or the Government (as the case may be) and an officer or servant of a local authority within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1941 , or of a harbour authority, health board, vocational educational committee or committee of agriculture shall be deemed to be employed by the local authority, harbour authority, health board, vocational educational committee or committee of agriculture (as the case may be);

“employment agency” means a person who, whether for profit or otherwise, provides services related to the finding of employment for prospective employees or the supplying of employees to employers;

“functions” includes powers and duties;

“investigation” means an investigation under section 39;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Labour;

“non-discrimination notice” means a notice under section 44;

“profession” includes any vocation or occupation;

“trade union” has the same meaning as it has in the Trade Union Acts, 1871 to 1975.

(2) In this Act a reference to a section is to a section of this Act unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended.

(3) In this Act a reference to a subsection is to the subsection of the section in which the reference occurs unless it is indicated that reference to some other section is intended.