Written Answers. - Organisation of Working Time Act.
Derek McDowell
Question:
26
Mr. McDowell
asked the
Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment
the employment sectors she exempted under S.I. No. 21 of 1998 or other statutory instruments implementing the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.
[7696/98]
The Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 sets out statutory rights for employees in respect of rest. maximum working time and holidays. By means of three sets of ministerial regulations made under the Act — i.e. S.l. Nos. 20, 21 and 52 of 1998 — exemptions from the application of certain provisions of the Act have been granted in respect of employees in a range of activities specified in schedules attached to each of these regulations.
S.l. No. 20 of 1998, entitled the Organisation of Working Time (Exemption of Transport Activities) Regulations, 1998 prescribes that persons employed in transport activities of the kinds specified in the schedule thereto shall be exempt from the application of sections 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 of the Act which deal respectively with daily rest, rests and intervals at work, weekly rest, weekly working hours and nightly working hours. The transport activities in question include an activity consisting of, or connected with, the operation of any vehicle, train, vessel, aircraft or other means of transport (whether of goods or persons) other than any activity of a person holding a position of an administrative, managerial or clerical nature that is not directly related to the operation of such a means of transport; an activity that is carried on (a) for the purpose of the transport timetable, that is to say an activity that is carried on for the purpose of ensuring the continuity or regularity of any service which provides a means of transport referred to in paragraph 1, or (b) for the purpose of ensuring the safety of such a means of transport, other than any activity of a person holding a position of an administrative, managerial or clerical nature that is not directly related to the doing of the things required to be done for either such purpose.
S.I. No. 21 of 1998, entitled the Organisation of Working Time (General Exemptions) Regulations, 1998, prescribes that persons employed in the activities specified in the schedule thereto shall, subject to being granted equivalent compensatory rest, be exempt from the application of sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Act which deal respectively with daily rest, rests and intervals at work and weekly rest. Such persons are also exempt from the application of section 16 of the Act which deals with nightly working hours. The activities in question include an activity in which the employee is regularly required by the employer to travel distances of significant length, either from his or her home to the workplace or from one workplace to another workplace; an activity of a security or surveillance nature the purpose of which is to protect persons or property and which requires the continuous presence of the employee at a particular place or places, and, in particular, the activities of a security guard, caretaker or security firm; an activity falling within a sector of the economy or in the public service — (a) in which it is foreseeable that the rate at which production or the provision of services, as the case may be, takes place will vary significantly from time to time, or (b) the nature of which is such that employees are directly involved in ensuring the continuity of production or the provision of services, as the case may be, and in particular, any of the following activities — (i) the provision of services relating to the reception, treatment or care of persons in a residential institution, hospital or similar establishment; (ii) the provision of services at a harbour or airport; (iii) production in the press, radio, television, cinematographic, postal or telecommunications industries; (iv) the provision of ambulance, fire and civil protection services; (v) the production, transmission or distribution of gas, water or electricity; (vi) the collection of household refuse or the operation of an incineration plant; (vii) any industrial activity in which work cannot, by reason of considerations of a technical nature, be interrupted; (viii) research and development; (ix) agriculture; and (x) tourism.
S.I. No. 52 of 1998, entitled the Organisation of Working Time (Exemption of Civil Protection Services) Regulations, 1998, prescribes that persons employed in the activities in the civil protection services specified in the schedule thereto shall be exempt from the application of sections 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 of the Act which deal respectively with daily rest, rest and intervals at work, weekly rest, weekly working hours and nightly working hours. The activities in question are the activity of a person employed in a prison or place of detention, being an activity that involves the maintenance of security in that prison or place of detention or the control or care of prisoners and which cannot be carried on within the normal rostering schedules applicable to that prison or place of detention; the activity of a person employed by a fire authority in the position commonly known as retained fire fighter; the activity of a person, other than a member of the Garda Síochána, employed as an authorised officer (within the meaning of the Air Navigation and Transport Acts, 1950 to 1988, and any enactment amending or extending those Acts); the activity of a person employed by Dublin Port Company as a member of its harbour police; and the activity of a person employed in the Irish Marine Emergency Service, not being an activity of a clerical nature.
If the Deputy wishes to consider the contents of the above statutory instruments in more detail, copies are available in the Oireachtas Library.
