S.I. No. 136/2002 - Employment Regulation Order (Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee), 2002

1. All agricultural workers having a minimum of one year's service with their current employer shall be covered by a Sick Pay Scheme which entitles them to payment during absences due to illness. Such Scheme shall be provided by the employer, and shall be non-contributory.

2. No payment shall be made in respect of the first 3 days of any absence on sick leave. For entitlement to payment, a certificate signed by a medical practitioner must be produced by the third day of any absence on sick leave, specifying the nature of the illness. Certificates must be produced weekly thereafter for continuance of entitlement to sick pay.

3. It will be the worker's duty to ensure that the employer is informed of his absence from work due to illness before normal starting time on the first day of absence.

4. Entitlement to benefit under the Scheme will apply only during a 12 month period in any Scheme year, and will not carry over from one year to another.

5. Entitlement to benefit under the Scheme will apply to full-time staff, and pro-rata to part-time staff, as follows:-

All Staff

After one year's service

3 weeks' pay at appropriate Employment Regulation Order rates less Social Welfare entitlement.

6. Disciplinary procedures may be applied to any worker found to have abused the Scheme.

7. The employer will be entitled to refer a worker for assessment by a doctor nominated by the employer. The cost of any such referral will be paid by the employer.

8. The worker will be responsible for claiming his/her Social Welfare entitlements while on sick leave, and for paying over such payments to the employer. Monies not paid over within 6 weeks of receipt by the worker may be treated by the employer as payment of wages in advance.

PART VI

WORKERS TO WHOM THIS ORDER APPLIES

The minimum remuneration and conditions of employment set out in this Order shall apply subject to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts 1946-2001, to all agricultural workers.

Workers employed in the mushroom growing industry and whose wages and conditions of employment are governed by a Registered Employment Agreement are excluded from the scope of this Order.

Grooms are included in the scope of this Order, except for those whose wages and conditions of employment are regulated by a Registered Employment Agreement.

For the purposes of this Order

AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYER

means a person who employs other persons as agricultural workers.

AGRICULTURAL WORKER

means a person employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship whose work under the contract is or includes work in agriculture, but does not mean a person whose work under such contract is mainly domestic service.

AGRICULTURE

means horticulture, the production of any consumable produce, which is grown for sale or for consumption or other use, dairy farming, poultry farming, the use of land as grazing, meadow or pasture land or orchard or osier land or woodland, or for market gardens, private gardens, nursery grounds or sports grounds, the caring for or the rearing or training of animals and any other incidental activities connected with agriculture.

Nothing in this Employment Regulation Order shall be taken to exclude, limit or be in any way inconsistent with the rights of any employee under any statutory enactment.

Given under the Official Seal of the

Labour Court this 15

th

day of

April, 2002.

CAROLINE JENKINSON

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

This Statutory Instrument fixes, with effect from 23

rd

April, 2002, the statutory minimum rates of remuneration and regulates the conditions of employment for agricultural workers. It does not cover workers in the mushroom growing industry or grooms if they are already covered by the terms of a Registered Employment Agreement. It is made by the Labour Court on the recommendation of the Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee.

* Per week means a 7 day week

* Per week means a 7 day week

* Per week means a 7 day week

WHEREAS

the Labour Court (hereinafter called ‘the Court’), pursuant to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts 1946-1990, made an Employment Regulation Order dated 2

nd

April 2001, (

S.I. No. 123 of 2001

) (hereinafter called ‘the said Order’), fixing the statutory minimum rates of remuneration and regulating the statutory conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee (hereinafter called ‘the Committee’) operates;

AND WHEREAS

the Committee has submitted to the Court a proposal for revoking the said Order;

AND WHEREAS

the Committee has submitted to the Court the proposals set out in the Schedule hereto for fixing the statutory minimum rates of remuneration and regulating the statutory conditions of employment of workers in relation to whom the Committee operates;

AND WHEREAS

the provisions of

Section 48

of the

Industrial Relations Act, 1990

have been complied with;

NOW, THEREFORE,

the Court, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Section 43(4) of the

Industrial Relations Act, 1946

and

Section 48

(4) of the

Industrial Relations Act, 1990

hereby orders as follows:-