First Previous (PART II. Compulsory Insurance Against Intermittent Unemployment.) Next (PART IV. Supplementary Benefit.)

7 1942

INSURANCE (INTERMITTENT UNEMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1942

PART III.

Contributions by Employers and Insured Persons.

Sources of contributions.

17. —The funds required for providing supplementary benefit and for making any other payments that under this Act are to be made out of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund established under this Act shall be derived partly from weekly contributions by insured persons, and partly from weekly contributions by the employers of those persons.

Liability of employers and insured persons for contributions.

18. —(1) Every insured person of the classes set out in the first column of the Second Schedule to this Act and every employer of any such insured person shall be liable to pay contributions (in this Act referred to as weekly contributions) weekly at the respective rates set out in the second and third columns of that Schedule or, if other rates are under this Act substituted for such first-mentioned rates, the rates for the time being so substituted.

(2) Except where otherwise prescribed by regulations under this Act, the employer of an insured person shall in the first instance be liable to pay both the weekly contribution payable by himself (in this Act referred to as the employer's contribution) and also on behalf of and to the exclusion of such insured person, the weekly contribution payable by such insured person (in this Act referred to as the insured person's contribution), and for the purposes of this Act weekly contributions paid by an employer on behalf of an insured person shall be deemed to be weekly contributions by the insured person.

(3) A weekly contribution shall be payable for each calendar week during the whole or any part of which an insured person has been employed by an employer, subject however as follows:—

(a) where one weekly contribution has been paid in respect of an insured person in any calendar week, no further weekly contribution shall be payable in respect of him for the same calendar week, and

(b) where no services are rendered by an insured person during any calendar week and no remuneration is paid in respect of that calendar week, the employer shall not be liable to pay any weekly contribution either on his own behalf or on behalf of the insured person in respect of that calendar week.

(4) Where a person is employed in any calendar week under the same employer partly in insurable employment and partly in other employment, then, notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3) of this section, no weekly contribution shall be payable in respect of that person for that calendar week unless half or more than half of the time during which he is so employed is in the in-surable employment.

Employer's contribution irrecoverable from insured person.

19. —Notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, the employer of an insured person shall not be entitled to deduct from the wages of, or otherwise to recover from such insured person, the employer's contribution.

Recovery by employer of insured person's contribution.

20. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section and subject to any regulations which the Minister may make under this Act, the employer of an insured person shall be entitled to recover from such insured person in accordance with the provisions of this section the amount of any weekly contributions paid by him on behalf of such insured person.

(2) Where an insured person receives wages or other pecuniary remuneration from his employer, the amount of any weekly contribution paid by the employer on behalf of such insured person shall, notwithstanding the provisions of any Act or any contract to the contrary, be recoverable by means of deductions from the wages of such insured person or from any other remuneration due from the employer to such insured person and not otherwise, but no such deductions may be made from any wages or remuneration other than such as are paid in respect of the period or part of the period in respect of which the weekly contribution is payable, or in excess of the sum which represents the amount of the weekly contributions for the period in respect of which the wages or other remuneration are paid.

(3) Where a weekly contribution paid by the employer of an insured person on behalf of such insured person is recoverable from such insured person, but is not recoverable by means of deductions as aforesaid, it shall (without prejudice to any other means of recovery) be recoverable as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction but no such weekly contribution shall be recoverable unless proceedings for the purpose are instituted within three months from the date when the contribution was payable.

(4) Where an insured person is not paid wages or other money payments by his employer or any other person, the employer shall be liable to pay the weekly contributions payable both by himself and such insured person and shall not be entitled to recover any part thereof from such insured person.

(5) Any sum deducted by an employer from wages or other remuneration under this section shall be deemed to have been entrusted to him for the purpose of paying the weekly contribution in respect of which it was deducted.

Persons to be treated as employers in certain cases.

21. —Where an insured person is employed by more than one person in any calendar week, the first person employing him in that week shall be deemed to be the employer of such insured person for the purposes of the provisions of this Act relating to the payment of weekly contributions.

Date from which contributions are payable in certain cases.

22. —(1) Where it has been decided by the Minister in manner provided by this Act that weekly contributions under this Act are not payable in respect of any person or class of persons and that decision is subsequently revised or reversed by him or, on appeal, by the High Court so as to make weekly contributions payable in respect of that person or that class of persons, weekly contributions shall be so payable only as from the date on which the decision was revised or reversed.

(2) Where it has been decided by the Minister that weekly contributions in respect of a person or class of persons are payable at a particular rate under this Act and that decision is subsequently revised or reversed by him or, on appeal, by the High Court so as to make weekly contributions payable at another rate in respect of that person or class of persons, weekly contributions shall be so payable at such other rate only as from the date on which the decision was revised or reversed.

Repayment in certain cases of contributions.

23. —Any weekly contributions paid by a person and his employer respectively under the erroneous belief that the weekly contributions were payable in respect of that person under the provisions of this Act may be returned to them by the Minister on application being made to him in that behalf in such form as he may require before the expiration of twelve months from the date the weekly contributions were paid, subject, in the case of the insured person's contributions, to the deduction of any amount of supplementary benefit received by him to which he would not have been entitled if these weekly contributions had not been paid.

Power to make regulations as to payment of contributions by stamps, etc.

24. —The Minister may make regulations providing for any matters incidental to the payment and collection of weekly contributions and in particular for—

(a) the payment of weekly contributions

(i) by means of adhesive or other stamps (in this Act referred to as supplementary insurance stamps) affixed to or impressed upon books or cards (in this Act respectively referred to as supplementary unemployment books and supplementary unemployment cards) or otherwise, and for regulating the manner, times and conditions in, at, or under which supplementary insurance stamps are to be affixed or impressed; or

(ii) by direct payments by the employers of insured persons to the Minister in such manner, at such times and under such conditions as the Minister may prescribe; or

(iii) by such other means as the Minister may by such regulations prescribe;

(b) the entry in or upon supplementary unemployment books or cards of particulars of weekly contributions paid in respect of any specified period or of such other particulars as may be required in the case of the persons to whom the supplementary unemployment books or cards relate, and for the acceptance of such entry as sufficient evidence of the number of weekly contributions so paid, or of the other particulars so entered;

(c) the application for, the issue, sale, custody, production and delivery up of supplementary unemployment books or cards and the replacement of supplementary unemployment books or cards which have been lost, destroyed or defaced;

(d) the rendering by employers to the Minister of such particulars relating to persons employed by them as the Minister may require or by such regulations prescribe.

Issue of supplementary insurance stamps.

25. —Supplementary insurance stamps shall be prepared and issued in such manner as the Revenue Commissioners, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may direct and the said Commissioners may, by regulations, provide for applying, with the necessary adaptations, as respects supplementary insurance stamps, all or any of the provisions, including penal provisions, of the following enactments, that is to say, sections 21, 35, and 36 of the Inland Revenue Regulation Act, 1890, the Stamp Duties Management Act, 1891, section 9 of the Stamp Act, 1891, and section 65 of the Post Office Act, 1908, and may, with the consent of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, provide for the sale of supplementary insurance stamps at Post Offices.

Provision for enabling Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to exercise powers in relation to supplementary insurance stamps.

26. —(1) The Government may by order provide that any powers and duties of the Revenue Commissioners with reference to supplementary insurance stamps shall be exercised and performed by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, either to the exclusion of the Revenue Commissioners or concurrently with the Revenue Commissioners, and any such order may contain such provisions as appear to the Government to be necessary or expedient for giving full effect to the exercise and performance of the duties to which such order relates in the manner provided by such order.

(2) Every order under this section shall have the force of law.

Priority of claims for contributions due by a bankrupt employer.

27. —(1) There shall be included among the debts that under section 209 of the Companies Consolidation Act, 1908, are in the distribution of assets of a company being wound up to be paid in priority to all other debts all weekly contributions payable under this Act by the company in respect of insured persons during the four months before the commencement of the winding-up or the winding-up order, and that Act shall have effect accordingly and formal proof of the debts to which priority is given under this section shall not be required except in cases where it may otherwise be provided by the rules made under that Act.

(2) Sub-section (1) of this section shall not apply where a company is wound up voluntarily merely for the purposes of reconstruction or of amalgamation with another company.

(3) There shall be included among the debts that under section 4 of the Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy (Ireland) Act, 1889, are in the distribution of the property of a bankrupt or arranging debtor to be paid in priority to all other debts all weekly contributions payable by the bankrupt or arranging debtor in respect of insured persons during the four months before the date of the order of adjudication in the case of a bankrupt or the filing of the petition for arrangement in the case of an arranging debtor and that Act shall have effect accordingly and formal proof of the debts to which priority is given under this sub-section shall not be required except in cases where it may otherwise be provided by general orders made under the said Act.