16.—(1) An employer shall not penalise an employee for proposing to exercise or having exercised his or her entitlement to carer’s leave.

(2) Penalisation of an employee includes—

(a) dismissal of the employee.

(b) unfair treatment of the employee, including selection for redundancy, and

(c) an unfavourable change in the conditions of employment of the employee.

(3) If a penalisation of an employee, in contravention of subsection (1), constitutes a dismissal of the employee, as referred to in subsection (2)(a) the employee may institute proceedings under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 1993, in respect of that dismissal and such dismissal may not be referred to a rights commissioner under Part 4.

(4) An employee who is entitled to return to work in the employment concerned in accordance with section 14 but is not permitted by his or her employer to do so—

(a) shall be deemed to have been dismissed on the date on which he or she was entitled to so return to work and the dismissal shall be deemed, for the purposes of the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 1993, to have been an unfair dismissal unless, having regard to all the circumstances, there were substantial grounds justifying the dismissal, and

(b) shall be deemed for the purposes of the Redundancy Payments Acts, 1967 to 1991, to have had his or her contract of employment with his or her employer terminated on the date aforesaid.