NEON SIGN MAKERS SCHEME - SCHEME NO. 5

NEON SIGN MAKERS SCHEME - SCHEME NO. 5

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 594.04

NEON SIGN MAKERS SCHEME

- SCHEME NO. 5

21st December, 1952

GOVERNMENT NOTICE 554 of 1952, as amended by Government

Notices 114 and 132 of 1953, and 213 of 1957, Act XLIV of 1965, and

Legal Notices 32 of 1967, 119 of 1969, 47 and 77 of 1970, 124 of 1976, 61

and 86 of 1977, 51 of 1978, 80 of 1979 and 424 of 2007.

The title of this Scheme is the Neon Sign Makers Scheme -

Scheme No. 5.

The meaning of words and expressions set out in the

Employment and Training Services Act shall apply in this scheme,

unless the context otherwise requires.

This scheme shall apply to the calling of neon sign maker.

No person may be employed as an apprentice under this

scheme unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Director that

such person has a standard of education at least equivalent to that

of a person who has either completed the fourth year of a

Secondary School or the full Trade School Course, and has

completed a period of six months as a learner in the calling of neon

sign maker.

Employers engaging apprentices under this scheme shall

undertake to teach them and to grant them facilities to learn the

following processes

(a) glass treatment and blowing; cleaning, cutting,

bending, welding, stretching, jointing, stemming and

flat-bottoming;

(b) cleaning, drying and powdering tubes;

(c) preparation of electrodes;

(d) exhausting, bombardment and filling of tubes;

(e) testing tubes, masking electrodes and sections of

tubes;

(f)

assembly, erection and maintenance of neon signs on

site;

(g) use, care and maintenance of high vacuum equipment,

bench and hand torches.

The period of apprenticeship shall be of five and a half

years

Provided that six months shall be deducted from the said

period of five and a half years, up to a total deduction of not more

than two years, in respect of each complete year of attendance by

the prospective apprentice, at any electrical course in a

Government Technical Day-School, as long as such attendance is

certified to be satisfactory by the Director of the School concerned

NEON SIGN MAKERS SCHEME - SCHEME NO. 5

Provided that in respect of contracts of apprenticeship

entered into after the 1st day of January, 1970, for the words "five

and one half years" wherever they occur in this article, there shall

be substituted the words "five years".

The wages payable to apprentices in the callings to which

this scheme applies shall be as follows

Year

Wages per week

First

€24.57

Second

€29.23

Third

€33.92

Fourth

€38.60

Fifth

€43.26.

The employer shall afford to the apprentices facilities for

attending during the term of apprenticeship such classes of

instruction as the Minister responsible for labour may by order

determine. Such classes shall not take up more than ten hours in

any one week, and if such classes occur during ordinary working

hours, the hours so spent shall be reckoned as hours of employment

for the purposes of the payment of wages.

The apprentice shall be bound to attend all classes

determined as aforesaid. Should he fail so to attend on any day

without just cause, the employer shall be entitled to make a

deduction from the wages of the apprentice equivalent to one

twelfth of the weekly rate in respect of each half day or part thereof

of default.

(1) The hours of work of apprentices employed under this

scheme shall not exceed nine hours in any one day

Provided that employers may employ apprentices on

overtime work with the approval of the Director, who may impose

such conditions as he may deem fit, at the following rates of

remuneration

(a) for all time worked in excess of nine hours daily: time

and a half;

(b) for all time worked in excess of forty-five hours in any

week, exclusive of any time paid at overtime rates

time and a half;

(c) for all time worked on Sundays and on customary

holidays: double time.

(2) Apprentices under 16 years of age may not be employed

between 11 p.m. of any one day and 6 a.m. of the next following

day.

Apprentices shall be granted one whole day of rest in every

calendar week.

NEON SIGN MAKERS SCHEME - SCHEME NO. 5

Apprentices shall be entitled, in every calendar year, to -

(a) all customary holidays with full pay, and

(b) after three months in employment, vacation leave of

such number of working days with full pay as is

equivalent to the number of working days as that

particular apprentice should normally attend to work

during a period of four weeks

Provided that -

(a) all apprentices who have been in employment for less

than one year shall be entitled to such part of the said

vacation leave as is in proportion to the number of

months in employment, and

(b) vacation leave may not normally be availed of on any

day when the apprentice is required to attend school

for theoretical instruction.

(1) After completing the first six months of

apprenticeship, apprentices shall be entitled to twenty days sick

leave on full pay in every calendar year less any sickness benefit to

which they may be entitled under the Social Security Act

Provided that a medical certificate certifying incapacity for

work covering the period of absence is produced to the employer,

who may require his medical practitioner to examine the

apprentice.

(2) Apprentices shall not be entitled to the payment of any

wages for the first three days of every period of sick leave

Provided that the number of unpaid days of sick leave shall

not be deducted from the entitlement of paid sick leave.

Apprentices shall be allowed two days paid leave on the

death of any of the following: the wife, husband, mother, father (or

the person who at the time was in fact acting as the mother or

father), son, daughter, brother and sister of the apprentice.

In this scheme "customary holidays" means the days (other

than Sundays) declared for the time being to be public holidays by

or under the National Day and other Public Holidays Act.

An apprentice shall be entitled to one year injury leave on

full pay, less the full amount of any injury benefit to which an

apprentice may be entitled in terms of the Social Security Act, if he

is injured during the actual discharge of his duty and such injury is

not due to contributory negligence on his part or to contravention

by him of safety rules laid down by the management.