Unfair Dismissals Act 1977

• Enactment Date: 06 April 1977
• Act Number: 10

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Number 10 of 1977

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UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACT 1977

REVISED

Updated to 29 July 2021

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This Revised Act is an administrative consolidation of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. It is prepared by the Law Reform Commission in accordance with its function under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975 (3/1975) to keep the law under review and to undertake revision and consolidation of statute law.

All Acts up to and including the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 (32/2021), enacted 23 July 2021, and all statutory instruments up to and including the Workplace Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 (Commencement) Order 2021 (S.I. No. 397 of 2021), made 28 July 2021, were considered in the preparation of this Revised Act.

Disclaimer: While every care has been taken in the preparation of this Revised Act, the Law Reform Commission can assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided and does not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions. Please notify any errors, omissions and comments by email to

revisedacts@lawreform.ie.

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Number 10 of 1977

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UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACT 1977

REVISED

Updated to 29 July 2021

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Introduction

This Revised Act presents the text of the Act as it has been amended since enactment, and preserves the format in which it was passed.

Related legislation

Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015: this Act is one of a group of Acts included in this collective citation, to be construed together as one (Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 (27/2015), s. 1(4)). The Acts in this group are:

• Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 (10/1977)

• Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act 1991 (5/1991), in so far as it relates to the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 and 1991 (repealed)

• Unfair Dismissals (Amendment) Act 1993 (22/1993)

• Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 (45/2001), in so far as it relates to the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 1993

• Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005 (18/2005) (Part 6)

• Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Act 2007 (27/2007)

• Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 (27/2015), s. 39

Annotations

This Revised Act is annotated and includes textual and non-textual amendments, statutory instruments made pursuant to the Act and previous affecting provisions.

An explanation of how to read annotations is available at

www.lawreform.ie/annotations.

Material not updated in this revision

Where other legislation is amended by this Act, those amendments may have been superseded by other amendments in other legislation, or the amended legislation may have been repealed or revoked. This information is not represented in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the amended legislation if one is available.

Where legislation or a fragment of legislation is referred to in annotations, changes to this legislation or fragment may not be reflected in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the legislation referred to if one is available.

A list of legislative changes to any Act, and to statutory instruments from 1972, may be found linked from the page of the Act or statutory instrument at

www.irishstatutebook.ie.

Acts which affect or previously affected this revision

• Workplace Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 (29/2021)

• Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 (35/2019)

• Health Service Executive (Governance) Act 2019 (17/2019)

• Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 (38/2018)

• Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 (11/2016)

• Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 (27/2015)

• National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Act 2015 (22/2015)

• Workplace Relations Act 2015 (16/2015)

• Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 (9/2014)

• Protected Disclosures Act 2014 (14/2014)

• Local Government Reform Act 2014 (1/2014)

• Child and Family Agency Act 2013 (40/2013)

• Education and Training Boards Act 2013 (11/2013)

• Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012 (13/2012)

• Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011 (40/2011)

• Central Bank and Credit Institutions (Resolution) Act 2011 (27/2011)

• Criminal Justice Act 2011 (22/2011)

• Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010 (36/2010)

• Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2010 (33/2010)

• Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 (24/2010)

• Inland Fisheries Act 2010 (10/2010)

• Labour Services (Amendment) Act 2009 (38/2009)

• National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 (34/2009)

• Charities Act 2009 (6/2009)

• Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Act 2009 (1/2009)

• Chemicals Act 2008 (13/2008)

• Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Act 2007 (27/2007)

• Health Act 2007 (23/2007)

• Consumer Protection Act 2007 (19/2007)

• Employment Permits Act 2006 (16/2006)

• Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006 (13/2006)

• Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006 (9/2006)

• Adoptive Leave Act 2005 (25/2005)

• Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005 (18/2005)

• Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (10/2005)

• Health Act 2004 (42/2004)

• Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 (28/2004)

• Equality Act 2004 (24/2004)

• Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 (29/2003)

• Competition Act 2002 (14/2002)

• Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 (45/2001)

• Local Government Act 2001 (37/2001)

• Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2001 (27/2001)

• Carer’s Leave Act 2001 (19/2001)

• National Minimum Wage Act 2000 (5/2000)

• Protections for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act 1998 (49/1998)

• Parental Leave Act 1998 (30/1998)

• Employment Equality Act 1998 (21/1998)

• Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 (20/1997)

• Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Act 1996 (32/1996)

• Adoptive Leave Act 1995 (2/1995)

• Maternity Protection Act 1994 (34/1994)

• Unfair Dismissals (Amendment) Act 1993 (22/1993)

• Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act 1991 (5/1991)

• Industrial Relations Act 1990 (19/1990)

• Labour Services Act 1987 (15/1987)

• Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act 1984 (21/1984)

• Maternity Protection of Employees Act 1981 (2/1981)

• Employment Equality Act 1977 (16/1977)

All Acts up to and including Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 (32/2021), enacted 23 July 2021, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

Statutory Instruments which affect or previously affected this revision

• Employment Affairs and Employment Law (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2020 (S.I. No. 438 of 2020)

• Labour Affairs and Labour Law (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2017 (S.I. No. 361 of 2017)

• Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2011 (S.I. No. 245 of 2011)

• Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2010 (S.I. No. 185 of 2010)

• European Communities (Cross-Border Mergers) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 157 of 2008)

• European Communities (European Aviation Safety Agency) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 95 of 2008)

• European Communities (Occurrence Reporting in Civil Aviation) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 285 of 2007)

• European Communities (European Cooperative Society) (Employee Involvement) Regulations 2007 (S.I. N. 259 of 2007)

• European Communities (European Public Limited-Liability Company) (Employee Involvement) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 623 of 2006)

• European Communities (European Aviation Safety Agency) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 469 of 2003)

• European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 131 of 2003)

• European Communities (Burden of Proof in Gender Discrimination Cases) Regulations 2001 (S.I. No. 337 of 2001)

• Enterprise and Employment (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 1997 (S.I. No. 305 of 1997)

• Industrial Relations Act 1990 Code of Practice on Employee Representatives (Declaration) Order 1993 (S.I. No. 169 of 1993)

• Labour (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 1993 (S.I. No. 20 of 1993)

• Industry and Commerce (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 1993 (S.I. No. 19 of 1993)

• Labour (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 1993 (S.I. No. 18 of 1993)

• Maternity Protection (Disputes and Appeals) Regulations 1981 (S.I. No. 357 of 1981)

• Unfair Dismissals (Calculation of Weekly Remuneration) Regulations 1977 (S.I. No. 287 of 1977)

• Unfair Dismissals (Claims and Appeals) Regulations 1977 (S.I. No. 286 of 1977)

• Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 (Commencement) Order 1977 (S.I. No. 133 of 1977)

All statutory instruments up to and including Workplace Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 (Commencement) Order 2021 (S.I. No. 397 of 2021), made 28 July 2021, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

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Number 10 of 1977

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UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACT 1977

REVISED

Updated to 29 July 2021

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ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

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Number 10 of 1977

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UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACT 1977

REVISED

Updated to 29 July 2021

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AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR REDRESS FOR EMPLOYEES UNFAIRLY DISMISSED FROM THEIR EMPLOYMENT, TO PROVIDE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF CLAIMS FOR SUCH REDRESS BY RIGHTS COMMISSIONERS AND BY THE TRIBUNAL ESTABLISHED, FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING CERTAIN APPEALS, BY THE...