Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 July 2013
300. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the current regulations appertaining to employees in the hotel sector in respect of minimum pay, breaks, holidays and premia in respect of night duty and-or other pay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36717/13]
View answerAs a consequence of the judgment in the John Grace Fried Chicken High Court case on 7 July 2011, the provisions of sections 42, 43, and 45 of the 1946 Industrial Relations Act 1946 and section 48 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990 Act were declared to be invalid having regard to the provisions of Article 15.2.1 of the Constitution. Consequently, all of the seventeen Employment Regulations Orders (EROs) that fixed minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment in place at that time, including the ERO covering the Hotels sector outside of Dublin and Cork, ceased to have statutory effect from that date.
The minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for Hotel workers covered at the time of the judgement by the ERO continued to be protected by their individual contracts of employment, many of which would have been set at the prevailing ERO rates. Any question of a change to an employee’s contractual entitlements is essentially a matter to be agreed between each employee and their employer.
Employees in employment sectors previously regulated by ERO’s now come within the ambit and the pay rates provided for under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000. Provisions in relation to breaks, holidays and premium payments for working on Sunday's are covered by the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.
