PART I.

Preliminary and General.

1. —This Act may be cited as the Industrial Relations Act, 1946.

2. —This Act shall come into operation on the day appointed for the purpose by order of the Minister.

3. —In this Act—

the expression “the Court” means the Labour Court;

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

the word “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

the expression “registered joint industrial council” has the meaning given to it by section 59 of this Act;

the expression “trade dispute” means any dispute or difference between employers and workers or between workers and workers connected with the employment or non-employment, or the terms of the employment, or with the conditions of employment, of any person;

the expression “trade union” means a trade union which is the holder of a negotiation licence granted under the Trade Union Act, 1941 (No. 22 of 1941).

4. —(1) In this Act (except Part VI) the word “worker” means any person of the age of fourteen years or upwards who has entered into or works under a contract with an employer whether the contract be for manual labour, clerical work, or otherwise, be expressed or implied, oral or in writing, and whether it be a contract of service or of apprenticeship or a contract personally to execute any work or labour, other than—

(a) a person who is employed by or under the State, or

(b) a teacher in a secondary school, or

(c) a teacher in a national school, or

(d) a person who is employed by a local authority in any office or employment, or

(e) an officer or servant of a vocational education committee, or

(f) an officer or servant of a committee of agriculture, or

(g) an officer of a school attendance committee, or

(h) an agricultural worker, within the meaning of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936 (No. 53 of 1936).

(2) For the purposes of this section, each of the following bodies (whether corporate or unincorporated) shall be a local authority—

(a) a council of a county, a corporation of a county or other borough, a council of an urban district, a public assistance authority, the commissioners of a town, a port sanitary authority,

(b) a committee or joint committee or board or joint board appointed (whether before or after the passing of this Act) by or under statute to perform the functions or any of the functions of one or more of the bodies mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection, and

(c) a committee or joint committee or board or joint board, of or appointed by one or more of the bodies mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection, but not including a vocational education committee, a committee of agriculture, or a school attendance committee.

5. —The Minister may make regulations in relation to anything referred to in this Act as prescribed.

6. —Every regulation made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House, within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation has been laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

7. —An offence under any section or subsection contained in this Act may be prosecuted by the Minister.

8. —The enactments specified in the second column of the First Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

9. —The expenses incurred in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.