2.—(1) In this Act—

“authorised officer” means a person appointed by the Minister to be an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act;

F1["contract of employment" means:

(a) a contract of service or of apprenticeship, and

(b) any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency within the meaning of the Employment Agency Act 1971 (No. 27 of 1971), and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is a party to the contract),

whether the contact is express or implied and, if express, whether it is oral or in writing;]

“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under (or, in the case of a contract which has been terminated, worked under) a contract of employment with an employer, whether the contract is for manual labour, clerical work or otherwise, is express or implied, oral or in writing, F2[…];

F3["employees’ representatives", in relation to employees who are affected, or are likely to be affected, by proposed collective redundancies (whether by being selected for redundancy or otherwise), means-

(a) a trade union, staff association or excepted body with which it has been the practice of the employer to conduct collective bargaining negotiations, or

(b) in the absence of such a trade union, staff association or excepted body, a person or persons chosen (under an arrangement put in place by the employer) by such employees from amongst their number to represent them in negotiations with the employer;]

F4["employer" means the person with whom the employee has entered into or for whom the employee works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment, subject to the qualification that the person who, under a contract of employment referred to in paragraph (b) of the definition of “contract of employment”, is liable to pay the remuneration of the individual concerned in respect of the work or service concerned shall be deemed to be the individual's employer;]

F5["excepted body" has the meaning assigned to it by section 6(3) of the Trade Union Act, 1941 (No. 22 of 1941), as amended;]

F6["Minister" means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment; ]

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations under this Act;

F7["responsible person", in the case of an employer whose business is being terminated following the commencement of bankruptcy or winding up proceedings or for any other reason as a result of a decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, means—

(a) the liquidator,

(b) the provisional liquidator (within the meaning of Part 11 of the Companies Act 2014),

(c) the receiver who has assumed full responsibility for the management of the business concerned, or

(d) any other person appointed by the court where that person has assumed full responsibility for the management of the business concerned.]

“staff association” means a body of persons all the members of which are employed by the same employer and which carries on negotiations for the fixing of the wages or other conditions of employment of its own members only;

“trade union” means a trade union which is the holder of a negotiation licence granted under the Trade Union Acts, 1941 and 1971.

(2) In this Act a reference to a section is to a section of this Act unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended.

(3) In this Act a reference to a subsection is to the subsection of the section in which the reference occurs unless it is indicated that reference to some other section is intended.