Maternity Protection Act 1994
Amendments relating to unfair dismissal.
38.—(1) At the beginning of subsection (1) of section 2 of the 1977 Act (which excludes certain employees) there shall be inserted “Except in so far as any provision of this Act otherwise provides”, and in paragraph (a) of that subsection the words from “and whose” shall be omitted.
(2) In section 2 (2) of the 1977 Act (which specifies dismissals in relation to which that Act does not apply) for paragraph (c) (inserted by the 1981 Act) there shall be substituted—
“(c) dismissal where the employee’s employer at the commencement of the employment informs the employee in writing that the employment will terminate on the return to work with that employer of another employee who is absent from work while on protective leave or natal care absence, within the meaning of Part IV of the Maternity Protection Act, 1994, and the dismissal of the first-mentioned employee duly occurs for the purpose of facilitating the return to work of that other employee.”.
(3) At the beginning of each of sections 3 and 4 of the 1977 Act (which relate to dismissal during probation, training or apprenticeship) there shall be inserted “Except in so far as any provision of this Act otherwise provides”.
(4) In section 6 (2) of the 1977 Act (which specifies the matters which cause a dismissal resulting from any of those matters to be deemed to be an unfair dismissal) for paragraphs (f) and (g) (the latter inserted by the 1981 Act) there shall be substituted—
“(f) the employee’s pregnancy, giving birth or breastfeeding or any matters connected therewith,
(g) the exercise or proposed exercise by the employee of a right under the Maternity Protection Act, 1994, to any form of protective leave or natal care absence, within the meaning of Part IV of that Act,”.
(5) After section 6 (2) of the 1977 Act there shall be inserted—
“(2A) Sections 3 and 4 do not apply to a case falling within paragraph (f) or (g) of subsection (2) and, for the purposes of those paragraphs, “employee” includes a person who would otherwise be excluded from this Act by paragraph (a), (c), (f) or (g) of section 2 (1).”.
Annotations
Editorial Notes:
E44
The amendments made by subss. (2) and (4) to the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 were superseded (18.10.2004) by amendments made by the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 (28/2005), s. 23, S.I. No. 652 of 2004. The amendment made by subs. (5) was superseded (20.03.1995) by an amendment made by Adoptive Leave Act 1995 (2/1995), s. 25, S.I. No. 64 of 1995.