UFD Scope of Act
Unfair Dismissal Act
REVISED
Updated to 1 August 2016
Definitions.
1.—In this Act—
F1[‘Act of 2015’ means the Workplace Relations Act 2015;
‘adjudication officer’ has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2015;]
F2[‘adopting parent’ means an employee who is an adopting parent within the meaning of the Adoptive Leave Act 1995;]
“contract of employment” means a contract of service or of apprenticeship, whether it is express or implied and (if it is express) whether it is oral or in writing;
“date of dismissal” means—
(a) where prior notice of the termination of the contract of employment is given and it complies with the provisions of that contract and of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973, the date on which that notice expires.
(b) where either prior notice of such termination is not given or the notice given does not comply with the provisions of the contract of employment or the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973, the date on which such a notice would have expired, if it had been given on the date of such termination and had been expressed to expire on the later of the following dates—
(i) the earliest date that would be in compliance with the provisions of the contract of employment,
(ii) the earliest date that would be in compliance with the provisions of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973,
(c) where a contract of employment for a fixed term expires without its being renewed under the same contract or, in the case of a contract for a specified purpose (being a purpose of such a kind that the duration of the contract was limited, but was, at the time of its making, incapable of precise ascertainment), there is a cesser of the purpose, the date of the expiry or cesser;
F1[‘Director General’ means the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission;]
“dismissal”, in relation to an employee, means—
(a
“employee” means an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) a contract of employment and, in relation to redress for a dismissal under this Act, includes, in the case of the death of the employee concerned at any time following the dismissal, his personal representative;
“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 an individual in the service of a local authority for the purposes of the F3[Local Government Act 2001 (as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014)], shall be deemed to be employed by the local authority;
“industrial action” means lawful action taken by any number or body of employees acting in combination or under a common understanding, in consequence of a dispute, as a means of compelling their employers or any employee or body of employees, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any employee or body of employees, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;
F4[‘Minister’ means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;]
F5[‘protected disclosure’ has the meaning given by the Protected Disclosures Act 2014;]
“redundancy” means any of the matters referred to in paragraphs (a) to (e) of section 7 (2) of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, as amended by the Redundancy Payments Act, 1971;
F5[‘relevant wrongdoing’ has the meaning given by the Protected Disclosures Act 2014;]
“statutory apprenticeship” means an apprenticeship in a designated industrial activity within the meaning of the Industrial Training Act, 1967, and includes any apprenticeship in a trade to which an order, rule or notice referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 49 (1) of that Act applies;
“strike” means the cessation of work by any number or body of employees acting in combination or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of employees to continue to work for an employer, in consequence of a dispute, done as a means of compelling their employer or any employee or body of employees, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any employee or body of employees, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;
F6[‘trade union’ means a trade union which is the holder of a negotiation licence under Part II of the Trade Union Act, 1941;]
F6[‘the Tribunal’ means the Tribunal established by section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, and known, by virtue of section 18 of this Act, as the Employment Appeals Tribunal.]
F7[(2) Where on the date of an award to an employee of re-instatement under this Act—
(a) the terms or conditions on which are employed other employees of the same employer who occupy positions similar to that from which the employee was dismissed, or
(b) if there are no such employees, the terms or conditions on which are employed employees generally of the same employer,
are more favourable to the employees concerned than they were at the date of the dismissal, then, the references in sections 5 (4) and 7 (1) (a) of this Act to the terms and conditions on which an employee was employed immediately before his dismissal shall, in the case of the first-mentioned employee, be construed as references to terms and conditions corresponding to those on which the other employees concerned are employed on the date of the award.
(3) In this Act a reference to any enactment shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended, adapted or extended by or under any subsequent enactment including this Act.]
Application of Act to certain civil servants.
2A.—(1) For the purposes of this Act, as respects the dismissal of a person who prior to such dismissal was a civil servant a reference in this Act to an ‘employee’ shall be construed as including a civil servant who held office in the Civil Service of the Government or in the Civil Service of the State.
(2) Subject to subsection (4), for the purposes of this Act, as respects the dismissal of a person who prior to such dismissal was a civil servant a reference in this Act to an ‘employer’ shall be construed as including the State, a Minister of the Government, a Department or a Scheduled Office (which term has the same meaning as it has in the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956) in which the civil servant concerned held office prior to the dismissal.
(3) As respects a civil servant to whom this Act applies, for the purposes of this Act, ‘contract of employment’ means such arrangements as are made by the Minister for Finance under section 17 of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956, together with such further terms and conditions of service which apply to the civil servant concerned, made in respect of a particular Department or Scheduled Office which extend or alter the arrangements under the said section 17.
(4) For the purposes of this section and the First Schedule—
(a) ‘Department’ includes such bodies or organisations (whether established by or under statute, or otherwise) other than a Scheduled Office, for which the Minister having charge of the Department concerned is responsible, and
(b) ‘Scheduled Office’ includes such bodies or organisations (whether established by or under statute or otherwise) for which the Minister of the Government having charge of the Scheduled Office is responsible.
(5) Where, as respects a person who was dismissed as a civil servant, the dismissal is found to be an unfair dismissal, and F27[the adjudication officer or the Labour Court], as the case may be, considers, pursuant to section 7, that it is appropriate that such person be re-engaged or re-instated, the right of re-instatement or re-engagement shall be construed to be a right to be re-instated or re-engaged, as the case may be, in the grade or rank held by that civil servant prior to his dismissal.
(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the status of a civil servant as an officer.]
Dismissal during probation or training.
3.—(1) F28[Except in so far as any provision of this Act otherwise provides] This Act shall not apply in relation to the dismissal of an employee during a period starting with the commencement of the employment when he is on probation or undergoing training—
(a) if his contract of employment is in writing, the duration of the probation or training is 1 year or less and is specified in the contract, or
(b) if his contract of employment was made before the commencement of this Act and was not in writing and the duration of the probation or training is 1 year or less.
(2) This Act shall not apply in relation to the dismissal of an employee during a period starting with the commencement of the employment when he is undergoing training for the purpose of becoming qualified or registered, as the case may be, as a nurse, pharmacist, health inspector, medical laboratory technician, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech therapist, radiographer or social worker.
Dismissal during apprenticeship.
4.—F29[Except in so far as any provision of this Act otherwise provides] This Act shall not apply in relation to the dismissal of a person who is or was employed under a statutory apprenticeship if the dismissal takes place within 6 months after the commencement of the apprenticeship or within 1 month after the completion of the apprenticeship.
The text in italics on this page is sourced from lawreform.ie and is re-published under the Licence for Re-Use of Public Sector Information made pursuant to Directive 2003/98/EC Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the re-use of public sector information transposed into Irish law by the European Communities (Re-Use of Public Sector Information) Regulations 2005 to 2015.