PART I.

Preliminary and General.

1. —(1) This Act may be cited as the Insurance (Intermittent Unemployment) Act, 1942.

(2) This Act (except sections 18 and 28) shall come into operation immediately upon the passing thereof.

(3) Section 18 of this Act shall come into operation on such day as shall be fixed for the purpose by order of the Minister.

(4) Section 28 of this Act shall come into operation on such day as shall be fixed for the purpose by order of the Minister.

2. —(1) In this Act—

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

the expression “local office” means an employment exchange or other office which is a local office for the purposes of regulations made under section 6 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, in relation to the collection of contributions under that Act; the expression “local officer”means an officer who for the time being is in charge of a local office;

the expression “calendar week” means the period of seven days commencing from midnight between Sunday and Monday;

the word “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act.

(2) A person shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed not to have attained the age of sixteen until the commencement of the sixteenth anniversary of the day of his birth and similarly with respect to other ages.

(3) References in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended or extended by any subsequent enactment.

3. —In this Act the expression “employment in the building trade” means employment on work of a kind commonly undertaken or carried out by builders or building contractors, and includes employment on work of the following descriptions, that is to say:—

(a) all work in the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, painting, decoration or demolition of buildings;

(b) all work in the installation, alteration, fitting, repair, painting, decoration, maintenance or demolition in any building or its site of articles, fittings, pipes, containers, tubes, wires or instruments (including central heating apparatus or machinery or fuel containers connected thereto), for the heating, lighting, power or water supply of such building, but excluding work in the construction or laying of public mains for the supply of water, gas, or electricity or the connection of buildings and their sites with such mains;

(c) all work usually carried out or undertaken by a builder or building contractor—

(i) in the clearing and laying out of sites for buildings,

(ii) in the construction of foundations on such sites,

(iii) in the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance within such sites of all sewers, drains or other works for use in connection with the sanitation of buildings or the disposal of waste,

(iv) in the erection on such sites of boundary walls or fences for the use, protection or ornamentation of buildings,

(v) in the making of roads and paths within the boundaries of such sites;

(d) all work in the manufacture, alteration, fitting or repair of articles of wood, worked stone, marble, slate, plaster, cement (including concrete blocks) or of cement-like material, for use in the construction, reconstruction, alteration, fitting, repair, decoration or maintenance of buildings and of a type commonly made in builders' workshops or yards, but excluding—

(i) the manufacture, alteration or repair of any article or monument designed as a memorial to living or dead persons,

(ii) the quarrying and cutting of slate at a quarry,

(iii) the quarrying in rough blocks of marble or stone,

(iv) the manufacture of articles of movable furniture,

(v) the manufacture of articles requiring treatment in an oven or kiln in the process of manufacture,

(vi) the manufacture of sewer pipes, drain pipes, bricks, floor tiles, roof tiles,

(vii) the manufacture of articles composed wholly or mainly of a combination of cement and asbestos.

4. —In this Act the expression “insurable employment” means employment by way of manual labour that—

(a) is either—

(i) employment in the building trade, or

(ii) employment in any other trade that is declared by an order made by the Minister under this Act to be insurable employment for the purposes of this Act, and

(b) is not an employment specified in the First Schedule to this Act.

5. —(1) Whenever the Minister is satisfied, in respect of any class of persons employed by a particular employer in an insurable employment, that—

(a) having regard to the normal practice of such employer, the employment of such class of persons is permanent in character, and

(b) no deductions are made on account of time lost owing to inclement weather from wages of such class of persons, and

(c) the other circumstances of the employment of such class of persons render it unnecessary that persons belonging to such class should be insured under this Act,

he may issue to such employer a certificate (in this Act referred to as a certificate of exception) that he is so satisfied.

(2) Where a certificate of exception in respect of a class of persons has been issued to an employer, then, any person employed by such employer who belongs to such class and who has completed three years or more permanent service with such employer shall, so long as such certificate is in force and such person remains in the employment of such employer, be an excepted person for the purposes of this Act, and the expression “excepted person” shall in this Act be construed accordingly.

(3) The Minister may at any time revoke any certificate of exception.

6. —In this Act the expression “insured person” means any person of the age of sixteen years or upwards who is employed in insurable employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship, written or oral, whether expressed or implied and whether such person is paid by the employer or some other person, and whether paid by time or by the piece or partly by time and partly by the piece, or otherwise, or without any money payment, but does not include a person employed under a contract of apprenticeship under which no money is payable by the employer, or a person who is for the time being an excepted person.

7. —(1) In this Act—

the expression “skilled worker” means—

(a) as respects employment in the building trade, an insured person who is employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship in (i) the capacity of carpenter, joiner, wood-cutting machinist, bricklayer, mason, stonecutter, stonelayer, terrazzo and mosaic worker, floor and wall tiler, plasterer, slater, roof-tiler, painter, paperhanger, decorator, glazier, plumber, heating-fitter, gas-fitter, french-polisher or electrician, or (ii) such other capacity as the Minister may decide generally or in a particular case to be employment as a skilled worker,

(b) as respects employment in any other trade that is declared by an order made by the Minister under this Act to be insurable employment for the purposes of this Act, an insured person who is employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship in (i) a capacity which constitutes such person a skilled worker as defined by such order or (ii) such other capacity as the Minister may decide generally or in a particular case to be employment as a skilled worker;

the expression “unskilled worker” means an insured person who is not a skilled worker;

the expression “young person” means an insured person who has attained the age of sixteen years but has not attained the age of twenty-one years.

(2) A person (other than a person who has attained the age of twenty-one years before the date of the commencement of section 18 of this Act) shall not be regarded as a skilled worker or an unskilled worker until the first day after the termination of the insurance year in which he has attained the age of twenty-one years.

(3) A person who attains the age of twenty-one years after the date of the commencement of section 18 of this Act shall be regarded as a young person until the last day of the insurance year in which he attains that age.

(4) An insured person who is a skilled worker and whose normal occupation alters in such way as to make him an unskilled worker shall be regarded as a skilled worker until such date as it is proved to the satisfaction of the Minister that the normal occupation of the insured person has so altered.

(5) An insured person who is an unskilled worker and whose normal occupation alters in such way as to make him a skilled worker shall be regarded as an unskilled worker until such date as it is proved to the satisfaction of the Minister that the normal occupation of the insured person has so altered.

8. —In this Act—

the expression “inclement weather” means weather that, owing to rain, storm, snow, hail, frost, flood, or other adverse climatic condition, renders temporarily unsafe or impracticable the performance of work in an insurable employment, having regard to the health or safety of the persons engaged therein or to the nature or technical requirements of the work;

the expression “intermittent unemployment” means unemployment and consequent loss of wages due to stoppage of work which is unavoidable owing to inclement weather, in an insurable employment, and the expression, “intermittently unemployed” shall be construed accordingly.

9. —(1) In this Act the expression “insurance year” means such period as may be prescribed.

(2) Until regulations are made by the Minister prescribing the period which is to be an insurance year, each of the following periods shall be an insurance year for the purposes of this Act, that is to say:—

(a) the period (in this Act referred to as the first insurance year) commencing on the date of the commencement of section 18 of this Act and ending on the first Sunday in the month of October next following the commencement of the said section 18,

(b) any period (being a period subsequent to the first insurance year) commencing on the Monday following the first Sunday in each October and ending on the first Sunday in October in the next following year.

10. —(1) If any question arises—

(a) as to whether any employment or any class of employment is, was or will be such employment as to make the person employed therein an insured person within the meaning of this Act or whether a person is or was an insured person within the meaning of this Act, or

(b) as to whether an insured person is or was a skilled worker or an unskilled worker or a young person within the meaning of this Act, or

(c) as to who is or was the employer of any insured person, or

(d) as to the rate of weekly contribution to be paid under this Act in respect of an insured person,

the question shall be decided by the Minister, but the Minister may, if he thinks fit, instead of himself deciding any such question, refer the question for decision to the High Court.

(2) Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Minister under this section may appeal from that decision to the High Court.

(3) The Minister may, on new facts being brought to his notice, revise or reverse any decision given by him under this section, other than a decision against which an appeal is pending or as respects which the time for appealing has not expired, and an appeal shall lie against any such revised or reversed decision in the same manner as against an original decision.

(4) The rules of court for regulating appeals and references to the High Court under sub-section (3) of section 10 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, shall apply to appeals and references to the High Court under this section.

(5) The Minister shall be entitled to appear and be heard on any appeal or reference under this section.

(6) Notwithstanding anything in any Act an appeal or reference under this section shall be to a single judge of the High Court to be nominated by the Chief Justice for the purpose, and the decision of the High Court on an appeal or reference under this section shall be final and conclusive.

(7) The Minister may by regulations prescribe the procedure to be followed on the consideration of questions to be decided by him under this Act.

11. —This Act shall apply to persons employed in insurable employment by the State to whom this Act would apply if the employer were a private person, except to such of those persons as are serving in an established capacity in the permanent service of the State or having been granted certificates by the Civil Service Commissioners are serving a probationary period preliminary to establishment.

12. —The Minister may make regulations for any of the following purposes, that is to say:—

(a) for any purpose for which regulations are expressly authorised to be made by any of the provisions of this Act;

(b) for prescribing any matter or thing which is referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed; and

(c) generally for carrying this Act into effect.

13. —Every regulation made by the Minister under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution annulling such regulation is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which such House has sat after such regulation is laid before it, such regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such regulation.

14. —The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

15. —(1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit by order—

(a) declare that employment in any trade (defined in such manner as the Minister thinks fit) shall be insurable employment for the purposes of this Act,

(b) define, by reference to employment in such capacities as the Minister thinks proper and specifies in such order, the expression “skilled worker” in relation to the employment declared by such order to be insurable employment.

(2) No order made under this section shall come into force unless and until it has been laid before each House of the Oireachtas and has been confirmed by resolution of each such House.