1.—In this Act—

F1["Act of 2015" means the Workplace Relations Act 2015;

"adjudication officer" has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2015;]

F2["adopting parent" means an employee who is an adopting parent within the meaning of the Adoptive Leave Act 1995;]

“contract of employment” means a contract of service or of apprenticeship, whether it is express or implied and (if it is express) whether it is oral or in writing;

“date of dismissal” means—

(a) where prior notice of the termination of the contract of employment is given and it complies with the provisions of that contract and of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973, the date on which that notice expires.

(b) where either prior notice of such termination is not given or the notice given does not comply with the provisions of the contract of employment or the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973, the date on which such a notice would have expired, if it had been given on the date of such termination and had been expressed to expire on the later of the following dates—

(i) the earliest date that would be in compliance with the provisions of the contract of employment,

(ii) the earliest date that would be in compliance with the provisions of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973,

(c) where a contract of employment for a fixed term expires without its being renewed under the same contract or, in the case of a contract for a specified purpose (being a purpose of such a kind that the duration of the contract was limited, but was, at the time of its making, incapable of precise ascertainment), there is a cesser of the purpose, the date of the expiry or cesser;

F1["Director General" means the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission;]

“dismissal”, in relation to an employee, means—

(a) the termination by his employer of the employee’s contract of employment with the employer, whether prior notice of the termination was or was not given to the employee,

(b) the termination by the employee of his contract of employment with his employer, whether prior notice of the termination was or was not given to the employer, in circumstances in which, because of the conduct of the employer, the employee was or would have been entitled, or it was or would have been reasonable for the employee, to terminate the contract of employment without giving prior notice of the termination to the employer, or

(c) the expiration of a contract of employment for a fixed term without its being renewed under the same contract or, in the case of a contract for a specified purpose (being a purpose of such a kind that the duration of the contract was limited but was, at the time of its making, incapable of precise ascertainment), the cesser of the purpose;

“employee” means an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) a contract of employment and, in relation to redress for a dismissal under this Act, includes, in the case of the death of the employee concerned at any time following the dismissal, his personal representative;

“employer”, in relation to an employee, means the person by whom the employee is (or, in a case where the employment has ceased, was) employed under a contract of employment and an individual in the service of a local authority for the purposes of the F3[Local Government Act 2001 (as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014)], shall be deemed to be employed by the local authority;

“industrial action” means lawful action taken by any number or body of employees acting in combination or under a common understanding, in consequence of a dispute, as a means of compelling their employers or any employee or body of employees, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any employee or body of employees, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

F4["Minister" means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;]

F5["protected disclosure" has the meaning given by the Protected Disclosures Act 2014;]

“redundancy” means any of the matters referred to in paragraphs (a) to (e) of section 7 (2) of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, as amended by the Redundancy Payments Act, 1971;

F5["relevant wrongdoing" has the meaning given by the Protected Disclosures Act 2014;]

“statutory apprenticeship” means an apprenticeship in a designated industrial activity within the meaning of the Industrial Training Act, 1967, and includes any apprenticeship in a trade to which an order, rule or notice referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 49 (1) of that Act applies;

“strike” means the cessation of work by any number or body of employees acting in combination or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of employees to continue to work for an employer, in consequence of a dispute, done as a means of compelling their employer or any employee or body of employees, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any employee or body of employees, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

F6["trade union" means a trade union which is the holder of a negotiation licence under Part II of the Trade Union Act, 1941;]

F6["the Tribunal" means the Tribunal established by section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, and known, by virtue of section 18 of this Act, as the Employment Appeals Tribunal.]

F7[(2) Where on the date of an award to an employee of re-instatement under this Act—

(a) the terms or conditions on which are employed other employees of the same employer who occupy positions similar to that from which the employee was dismissed, or

(b) if there are no such employees, the terms or conditions on which are employed employees generally of the same employer,

are more favourable to the employees concerned than they were at the date of the dismissal, then, the references in sections 5 (4) and 7 (1) (a) of this Act to the terms and conditions on which an employee was employed immediately before his dismissal shall, in the case of the first-mentioned employee, be construed as references to terms and conditions corresponding to those on which the other employees concerned are employed on the date of the award.

(3) In this Act a reference to any enactment shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended, adapted or extended by or under any subsequent enactment including this Act.]