Part 3, Section 12 · Protected Disclosures Act 2014

Contents

12Other protection of employees from penalisation for having made protected disclosure#

(1)An employer shall not penalise or threaten penalisation against an employee, or cause or permit any other person to penalise or threaten penalisation against an employee, for having made a protected disclosure.

(2)Subsection (1) does not apply to the dismissal of an employee to whom section 6(2)(ba) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 applies.

(3)Schedule 2 shall have effect in relation to an alleged contravention of subsection (1) .

(4)Subsection (3) does not apply in relation to the penalisation of an employee if the employee is within paragraph (d) of section 2(1) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.

(5)Any person who, on examination authorised under paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 2, wilfully makes any material statement which the person knows to be false or does not believe to be true commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.

(6)A person to whom a notice under paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 2 has been given and who refuses or wilfully neglects to attend in accordance with the notice or who, having so attended, refuses to give evidence or refuses or wilfully fails to produce any document to which the notice relates commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine.

(7)A document purporting to be signed by the chairperson or a deputy chairperson of the Labour Court stating that—

(a)a person named in the document was, by a notice under paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 2, required to attend before the Labour Court on a day and at a time and place specified in the document, to give evidence or produce a document, or both, and

(b)a sitting of the Labour Court was held on that day and at that time and place, and the person did not attend before the Labour Court pursuant to the notice or, having so attended, refused to give evidence or refused or wilfully failed to produce the document, shall, in a prosecution of the person for an offence under subsection (6), be evidence of the matters so stated without further proof unless the contrary is shown.

(7A)An employee who claims to have suffered penalisation wholly or mainly for having made a protected disclosure may apply to the Circuit Court for interim relief within 21 days immediately following the date of the last instance of penalisation or such longer period as the Court may allow.

(7B)In this section and Schedule 2, references to "employee" include a worker referred to in paragraphs (d), (g) and (h) of the definition of "worker" in section 3(1).

(7C)In any proceedings by an employee under the Workplace Relations Act 2015 in respect of an alleged contravention of subsection (1), the penalisation shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section, to have been as a result of the employee having made a protected disclosure, unless the employer proves that the act or omission concerned was based on duly justified grounds.

(8)Summary proceedings for an offence under subsection (5) or (6) may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

(9)A person appointed under paragraph (2)(d), (g), (h) or (i) who ceases to be an employee of the Regional Board or Regional Agency shall cease to be a member of the Local Commissioning Group.

(10)Where for any reason, the place of a member becomes vacant before the expiration of the member’s term of office whether by death, resignation or otherwise, the term of office of any person appointed in that person’s place shall be for the remainder of the term of office of the former member.

Contains Revised Acts prepared by the Law Reform Commission (revisedacts.lawreform.ie): legislative text under the Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence, annotations under CC BY 4.0. Revised Acts are administrative consolidations, not authoritative.