Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 December 2004
162 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the position of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare as to their entitlements under employment laws and regulations in obtaining a position as a FÁS employee in view of the fact that they received only a one year term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32890/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI understand that the person concerned has completed one year on a community employment project but my Department has been unable to ascertain whether a formal contract of employment existed between the individual and the sponsor organisation.
I understand that when a person is placed by FÁS on a community employment scheme, the sponsoring body is regarded as the employer. In that case, the person concerned would be regarded as an employee and protected by all employment rights legislation with the exception of the Redundancy Payments Acts, which requires two years continuous service for qualification. Also, this person would not be protected under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 which does not include employees with a contract of employment concluded within the framework of a publicly supported training, integration or vocational retraining programme.
The allocation of community employment places to projects and the eligibility of individual participants for extensions on this programme is an operational matter for FÁS.
