Social welfare legislation provides that a person is regarded as being engaged in casual employment for unemployment benefit purposes where he or she is normally employed for periods of less than a week; the number of days and the days of the week on which the person is employed varies with the level of activity in the employer's business and on the termination of each period of employment, the person has no assurance of being re-employed with the same employer.
If the person's work pattern does not comply with all these requirements, he or she cannot be classified as a casual worker. Social welfare legislation also provides that a person is regarded as being engaged in systematic short-time working where his or her full-time working week is reduced by the employer and where there is a clear repetitive pattern of employment each week. The number of days of benefit payable each week to a systematic short-time worker is limited to ensure that the total number of days paid and the number of days worked do not exceed five.
For unemployment benefit purposes, part-time employment is regarded as employment where the employee is engaged to work for less than the normal full-time number of days or hours in the employment concerned. The volume of work must be of an ongoing nature but not sufficient to sustain full-time employment.
With one exception, casual, systematic, short-time and part-time workers are treated no differently from any other unemployed person. With regard to the conditions for entitlement to unemployment benefit, the exception is that casual workers are exempt from the substantial loss of employment condition. This categorisation of workers does not apply in the case of unemployment assistance where claimants are not subject to a substantial loss of employment condition. However, social welfare legislation provides that where a person works for up to three days a week either on a casual or part-time basis, earnings are assessed at 60% for unemployment assistance purposes. In addition, persons without children are allowed a €12.70 disregard for each day worked, while the balance of earnings are assessed at 60%. Casual or part-time workers are subject to the same conditions as any other unemployed person for entitlement to unemployment assistance.