Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977

Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977 Skip to content Disclaimer Feedback Helpdesk Gaeilge Léim go dtí an t-ábhar Séanadh Aiseolas Deasc chabhrach English Gaeilge English Produced by the Office of the Attorney General Táirgthe ag Oifig an Ard-Aighne Home Legislation Acts of the Oireachtas Statutory Instruments Pre-1922 Legislation Constitution External Resources Bills (Houses of the Oireachtas) Iris Oifigiúil / Official Gazette Revised Acts (LRC) Classified List of Legislation (LRC) Translations (acts.ie) Translations (Houses of the Oireachtas) Government Publications for Sale EU Law (EUR-Lex) FAQ Disclaimer Feedback Helpdesk Search Baile Reachtaíocht Achtanna an Oireachtais Ionstraimí Reachtúla Reachtaíocht Réamh-1922 Bunreacht Acmhainní Seachtracha Billí (Tithe an Oireachtais) Iris Oifigiúil Achtanna Athbhreithnithe (CAD) (An Coimisiún um Athchóiriú an Dlí) Liosta Rangaithe Reachtaíochta Aistriúcháin (achtanna.ie) Aistriúcháin (Tithe an Oireachtais) Foilseacháin Rialtais ar Díol Dlí AE (EUR-Lex) CCanna (Ceisteanna Coitianta) Séanadh Aiseolas Deasc chabhrach Cuardach TitleTeideal Year(s) or rangeBliain nó blianta nó raon TypeCineál All Legislation Acts Statutory Instruments Advanced SearchCuardach Casta HomeBaile ActsAchtanna 1977 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977 Permanent Page URL View by SectionAmharc de réir Ailt View Full ActAmharc ar an Acht Iomlán Bill History Stair Bille Commencement, Amendments, SIs made under the Act Tosach Feidhme, Leasuithe, IRí arna ndéanamh faoin Acht Print Full ActPriontáil an tAcht Iomlán Number 9 of 1977 PROTECTION OF YOUNG PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1977 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section

Section 1

Interpretation.

Section 2

Industrial work.

Section 3

Non-application of Act.

Section 4

Minimum age for employment.

Section 5

Duties of employer of young person or child.

Section 6

Power of Minister to raise minimum age for employment.

Section 7

Normal working hours.

Section 8

Maximum hours of work for young persons under the age of sixteen years.

Section 9

Maximum hours of work for young persons over the age of sixteen years.

Section 10

Overtime pay.

Section 11

Vocational training in normal working hours.

Section 12

Intervals for rest.

Section 13

Entitlement of employee to rest.

Section 14

Restriction on the employment of young persons at night.

Section 15

Restriction on the employment of children at night.

Section 16

Prohibition of double employment.

Section 17

Exceptions and exemptions.

Section 18

Recovery of money due to any employee.

Section 19

Displays of abstract of Act.

Section 20

Preservation of existing rates of wages.

Section 21

Emergency as defence.

Section 22

Offences by bodies corporate.

Section 23

Prosecution of offences.

Section 24

Penalties.

Section 25

Regulations.

Section 26

Records.

Section 27

Powers of inspectors.

Section 28

Laying of certain draft orders, orders and regulations before Houses of Oireachtas.

Section 29

Repeals.

Section 30

Expenses.

Section 31

Short title and commencement.

SCHEDULE Acts Referred to Industrial Relations Act, 1946 1946, No. 26 Trade Union Act, 1941 1941, No. 22 Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 1936, No. 2 School Attendance Act, 1926 1926, No. 17 Conditions of Employment Act, 1944 1944, No. 12 Night Work (Bakeries) Act, 1936 1936, No. 42 Shops (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1938 1938, No. 4 Number 9 of 1977 PROTECTION OF YOUNG PERSONS (EMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1977 AN ACT TO REGULATE THE CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG PERSONS AND TO MAKE PROVISION FOR MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH. [6th April, 1977] BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act— “agreement” means a collective agreement, an employment regulation order or a registered employment agreement; “child” means a person who is under the school leaving age; “collective agreement” means an agreement by or on behalf of an employer, on the one hand, and by or on behalf of an entitled trade union or entitled trade unions representative of the employees to whom the agreement relates, on the other hand; “employ” means employment under a contract of service or a contract of apprenticeship; “employee” means a young person or a child as the context may require; “employment regulation order” means an employment regulation order within the meaning of Part IV of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946; “entitled trade union” means a body entitled under the Trade Union Act, 1941 , to carry on negotiations for the fixing of wages or other conditions of employment; “hours of work” does not include periods of rest during which the employee is not required to be available for work; “inspector” means a person appointed by the Minister to be an inspector for the purposes of this Act; “the Minister” means the Minister for Labour; “normal working hours” has the meaning assigned to it in section 7 of this Act; “outworker” has the meaning assigned to it by the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 ; “registered employment agreement” means a registered employment agreement within the meaning of Part III of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 ; “representatives of employees” means such trade unions as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of the employees in relation to whom the expression is used, or where there is no such trade union, such persons as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of such employees; “representatives of employers” means such associations as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of the employers in relation to whom the expression is used, or where there is no such association, such persons as are, in the opinion of the Minister, representative of such employers; “the school leaving age” means the age at which the School Attendance Act, 1926 , ceases to apply; “week” means a period of seven consecutive days; “young person” means a person who has reached the school-leaving age but is less than eighteen years of age.

Industrial work.

2.—(1) In this Act “industrial work” means— (a) industrial work within the meaning of section 3 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 (as amended by section 2 of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1944 ), (b) work carried out in mines, (c) work in the transport of persons or goods, and (d) such work as the Minister may by order under subsection (2) of this section declare to be industrial work for the purposes of this Act.

Non-application of Act.

3.—(1) This Act, other than sections 4, 5 (1) (a), 5 (1) (b), 5 (4) and 6, shall not apply to work as— (a) a fisherman, (b) a lighthouse or lightship keeper, (c) an outworker, or (d) a seafarer.

Minimum age for employment.

4.—(1) Subject to the subsequent provisions of this section an employer shall not employ a child to do work.

Provided that— (A) if a child is required to work for more than 2 hours on a Saturday, he shall not work on the next following Sunday, or (B) if a child is required to work for more than 2 hours on a Sunday, he shall not have worked on the immediately preceding Saturday. (b) This subsection shall remain in force only until the expiration of the period of two years beginning with the coming into force of this Act unless it is continued in force by an order under subsection (5) of this section.

Provided that during the period of the school summer holidays, the child does not do any work for a period of not less than fourteen consecutive days.

Duties of employer of young person or child.

5.—(1) Any employer who employs a young person or child to work for him shall— (a) before employing the young person or child, require the production of a copy of the birth certificate of, or other satisfactory evidence of the age of, the young person or child, as the case may be, (b) before employing a child, obtain the written permission of the parent or guardian of the child, and (c) maintain a register, or other satisfactory record containing the following particulars of every young person or child employed by him— (i) the full name of the young person or child; (ii) the date of birth of the young person or child; (iii) the time the young person or child commences work each day; (iv) the time the young person or child finishes work each day; (v) the rate of wages or salary paid to the young person or child for his normal working hours per day, per week, per month or per year, as the case may be; (vi) the total amount paid to each young person or child by way of wages or salary.

Power of Minister to raise minimum age for employment.

6.—The Minister may, after consultation with representatives of employers interested in the class of work involved and with representatives of employees so interested, in the case of any work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to endanger the health, welfare, safety or morals of employees, by order, raise the minimum age at which an employee may be employed to do such work.

Normal working hours.

7.—(1) In this Act “normal working hours” in relation to an employee means— (a) if the employee is a young person over the age of sixteen years— (i) eight hours in any day, and (ii) forty hours in any week; (b) if the employee is a young person under the age of sixteen years— (i) eight hours in any day, and (ii) thirty-seven and one-half hours in any week.

Maximum hours of work for young persons under the age of sixteen years.

8.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an employer shall not permit an employee who is a young person under the age of sixteen years in his employment to work for him for more than— (a) eight hours in any day, or (b) forty hours in any week.

Maximum hours of work for young persons over the age of sixteen years.

9.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an employer shall not permit an employee who is a young person over the age of sixteen years in his employment to work for him for more than— (a) nine hours in any day, or such other number of hours as may be specified in an agreement applying to the young person; (b) forty-five hours in any week, or such other number of hours as may be specified in an agreement applying to the young person; (c) one hundred and seventy-two hours in any period of four consecutive weeks; (d) two thousand hours in any year.

Overtime pay.

10.—(1) In this section— “overtime” means any hours worked in excess of normal working hours; “overtime pay” means the rate of pay which an employee is entitled to in respect of normal working hours increased by not less than twenty-five per cent.

Vocational training in normal working hours.

11.—Any time spent with the consent of his employer by a young person in vocational training during normal working hours shall be deemed to be hours worked by him for the purposes of section 8 and 9 of this Act.

Intervals for rest.

12.—(1) In this section “stated number of hours” in relation to an employee means— (a) five hours if the employee is a young person (b) four hours if the employee is a child.

Entitlement of employee to rest.

13.—(1) When an employee is employed by an employer to work on more than five days in a week and the employee is also required to do more than three hours work on a Sunday, the employer shall ensure that the conditions of employment of every such employee are such that the employee will have at least twenty-four consecutive hours rest without pay in every period of seven days.

Restriction on the employment of young persons at night.

14.—(1) An employer shall neither permit a young person to do any work at any time between the hour of 10 p.m. on any day and the hour of 6 a.m. on the following day nor permit a young person to do any work until the expiration of twelve hours from the time at which he ceased to do work on the previous day.

Restriction on the employment of children at night.

15.—(1) An employer shall neither permit a child to do work at any time between the hour of 8 p.m. on any day and 8 a.m. on the following day nor permit a child to do any work until the expiration of fourteen hours from the time at which he ceased to do work on the previous day.

Prohibition of double employment.

16.—(1) An employer shall not permit an employee to do for him any form of work on any day on which the employee has done any form of work for any other employer, except where the aggregate of the periods for which the employee does work for such employers on that day does not exceed the period for which such employee could lawfully be employed to do work for one employer on that day.

Exceptions and exemptions.

17.—(1) The Minister may, in any case where he is satisfied that the health, welfare and safety of employees are not endangered, by regulations, modify any provision of this Act in respect of any undertaking, industry, class of employees or class of work where, in his opinion, compliance with such provision would, in relation to that undertaking, industry, class of employees or class of work, be impracticable because of the seasonal nature or technical requirements of that class of work or other substantial reasons.

Recovery of money due to any employee.

18.—(1) Any sum of money due to an employee from his employer under any provision of this Act shall be recoverable by the employee from his employer as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Display of abstract of Act.

19.—(1) Every employer shall display at the principal entrances to the premises where any of his employees works, and in such other places as an inspector may require, in such a position that it may be easily read by employees so employed, the prescribed abstract of this Act.

Preservation of existing rates of wages.

20.—(1) Where, in order to comply with the provisions of this Act, the hours of work prevailing immediately before the commencement of this Act in regard to all employees or any particular employee employed in any particular form of work are reduced or are otherwise altered, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say: (a) the rate of salary, wages or other reward payable to any such employee immediately before the commencement of this Act shall not be reduced or be otherwise altered to the detriment of such employee merely because of the said reduction or alteration in the hours of work of such employee; (b) the said reduction or alteration of hours shall not terminate nor prejudicially affect the contract of service under which such employee is so employed immediately before the commencement of this Act, and every such contract shall continue in force after such commencement with such modifications only as may be necessary in order to comply with this Act; (c) every agreement which is in force immediately before the commencement of this Act and regulates or restricts the rate of salary, wages or other reward payable to any such employee shall continue in force after the commencement of this Act notwithstanding the said reduction or alteration of hours of work but with the modification that every rate of salary, wages or other reward which is fixed by such agreement and every restriction on any rate of salary, wages, or other reward contained in such agreement shall remain unchanged in amount; (d) every minimum rate of salary, wage or other reward fixed by statute or under statutory authority which is in force immediately before the commencement of this Act shall, if and so far as it is applicable to any such employee, continue after such commencement in force and unchanged in amount notwithstanding the said reduction or alteration of hours of work.

Emergency as defence.

21.—(1) It shall be a good defence to any proceedings taken against any person for a breach of any of the provisions of this Act if such person shows to the satisfaction of the court before which such proceedings are brought that any act occasioning such breach was rendered necessary or reasonably proper by the actual occurrence or the threat or reasonable anticipation of fire, flood, storm, violence, a breakdown of plant or machinery or any other emergency.

Offences by bodies corporate.

22.—(1) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate or by a person purporting to act on behalf of a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent or approval of, or to have been facilitated by any default on the part of any person, being a director, manager, secretary, or other officer of the body corporate, that person shall also be guilty of the offence.

Prosecution of offences.

23.—(1) Proceedings in relation to an offence under this Act relating to an employee may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister or by the trade union of which the employee is a member or by the parent or guardian of the employee.

Penalties.

24.—A person who commits an offence under this Act shall be liable on summary conviction— (a) in the case of a first offence under a particular section of this Act, to a fine not exceeding £100 (together with, in the case of a continuing offence, a fine not exceeding £10 for every day on which the offence is continued), and (b) in the case of a second or subsequent offence under that section, to a fine not exceeding £200 (together with, in the case of a continuing offence, a fine not exceeding £20 for every day on which the offence is continued).

Regulations.

25.—The Minister may make regulations— (a) for the purpose of giving effect to any of the provisions of this Act, (b) to amend or modify any provision of this Act so as to comply with any international obligations which the State has or has decided to assume, and (c) for prescribing any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed.

Records.

26.—(1) The employer shall keep such records as are necessary to show whether the provisions of this Act are being complied with in relation to his employees, and such records shall be retained by the employer for at least three years.

Powers of inspectors.

27.—(1) An inspector may for the purposes of this Act do all or any of the following things: (a) subject to the provisions of this section, enter at all reasonable times any premises or place where he has reasonable grounds for supposing that any employee is employed in work, (b) make such examination or enquiry as may be necessary for ascertaining whether the provisions of this Act are complied with in respect of any employee employed in any such premises or place, (c) require the employer of any employee or the representative of such employer to produce to him any records which such employer is required to keep and inspect and take copies of entries in such records, (d) require any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be or to have been an employee or the employer of any employee to furnish such information as the inspector may reasonably request, (e) examine with regard to any matters under this Act any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be or to have been an employer or employee and require him to answer such questions (other than questions tending to incriminate him) as the inspector may put relative to those matters and to sign a declaration of the truth of the answers.

Laying of certain draft orders, orders and regulations before Houses of Oireachtas.

28.—(1) Whenever an order is proposed to be made under section 3 , 4

Repeals.

29.—Each enactment mentioned in column (2) of the Schedule to this Act is hereby repealed to the extent specified in column (3) of that Schedule.

Expenses.

30.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall be paid out of monies provided by the Oireachtas.

Short title and commencement.

31.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1977.

SCHEDULE Enactments Repealed

Section 29

.

Number and Year Short Title Extent of Repeal 1936, No. 2 Conditions of Employment Act, 1936 .

Sections 13 , 14 , 39 , 40 and 47 .

1936, No. 42 Night Work (Bakeries) Act, 1936 .

Section 3

1938, No. 4 Shops (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1938 .

Sections 16 , 17 and 19 .

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