S.I. No. 93/2008 - Employment Regulation Order (Agricultural Workers Joint Labour Committee) 2008

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/her 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 1946-2004, 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.

PART VII

Bullying / Harassment / Grievance / Disciplinary Procedures

Each employer will include, in the conditions of employment, details of the procedure to apply in the event of issues arising in relation to bullying/harassment, grievance and discipline. In this regard the codes of practice contained in

S.I. No. 17 of 2002

(Bullying in the Workplace),

S.I. No. 78 of 2002

, Employment Equality Act, 1998 (Code of Practice) (Harassment) Order, 2002 and

S.I. No. 146 of 2000

(Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures) are to be noted.

Dismissal

In the event of a dismissal, the procedures will include the warning stages to apply prior to dismissal and will make reference to verbal and written warnings and to the fact that, depending on the nature of the misconduct/performance, the preliminary stages of the procedures may be bypassed.

(

a

) In the event of a summary dismissal, no decision will be taken until this matter has been fully investigated by management.

(

b

) The procedures will also state that an employee may be represented, at any stage of the disciplinary procedure, by a colleague or Trade Union official of his/her choice.

An employee may wish to challenge a dismissal to a Rights Commissioner, the Labour Relations Commission, the Labour Court, the Equality Authority or the Employment Appeals Tribunal or may pursue the matter under common law.

Given under the Official Seal of the Labour Court,

8 April, 2008

KEVIN DUFFY

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 from 14th April, 2008 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.

S.I. No. 93 of 2008

EMPLOYMENT REGULATION ORDER (AGRICULTURAL WORKERS JOINT LABOUR COMMITTEE) 2008

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of

11

th April

, 2008.

WHEREAS the Labour Court (hereinafter called “the Court”), pursuant to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts 1946 - 2004, made an Employment Regulation Order dated 1st May, 2007 (

S.I. No. 190 of 2007

) (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 Argricultural 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 Relation 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 Relation Act, 1946 and Section 48(4) of the

Industrial Relations Act, 1990

, hereby Orders as follows:-