asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason for disallowing the unemployment benefit claim of a person (name supplied); and if he will quote the statutory provisions invoked in the case.
18.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Benefit Claimants.
17.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason for disallowing the unemployment benefit claim of a person (name supplied); and if he will quote the statutory provisions invoked in the case.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 and 18 together.
Claims to unemployment benefit made by the two persons referred to in respect of 1st October, 1966, were disallowed by a deciding officer on the ground that the claimants did not satisfy the primary statutory condition laid down by section 15 (1) of the Social Welfare Act, 1952, for entitlement to such benefit, that is, that they were unemployed on that day.
The claimants, if dissatisfied, have the right to appeal against the decisions to an appeals officer.
Is the Minister aware that the two cases I have mentioned are simply test cases? In fact, the adjudication of his Department concerns dock workers as a whole in every one of our ports. Apparently, his Department have irregularly invoked regulations denying the right of port workers to sign for a Saturday morning on which they are not employed. I would like the Minister to explain to me the anomaly whereby dockers employed on a weekly wage basis are entitled and facilitated to sign on Monday for the Saturday, whereas dockers employed on a tonnage basis are not allowed to do so? Would the Minister explain to me how this differentiation exists? From a study of the regulations under the Acts, I cannot understand it, and certainly the dockers cannot.
If, as the Deputy said these are test cases, the claimants would be well advised to appeal to an appeals officer, as I suggested in my reply. This is a problem arising out of the fact that many people now have a five-day working week. In cases where a full five-day week has been worked and the work is resumed with the same employer on the following Monday, Saturday is not regarded as a day of unemployment. On the basis that wages payable in respect of the five-day week include an element for Saturday, the contract between the employer and the employee subsists over the weekend. However, as I said, the claimants have a right of appeal to an appeals officer. I shall not decide the appeal here.
Because of the unsatisfactory nature of the Minister's reply, I propose, with the permission of the Chair, to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
I shall communicate with the Deputy in the course of the afternoon.