2.—(1) The Department may make a scheme providing for the transfer on the appointed day to the employment of the Executive of officers who immediately before that day are employed by a health and social services board wholly or mainly for the purposes of providing hostel accommodation for persons in need.
(2) A transferred officer shall, so long as he continues in the employment of the Executive in accordance with a scheme under sub-paragraph (1) and until he is served with a statement in writing by the Executive setting out his new terms and conditions of employment, enjoy terms and conditions of employment not less favourable than those he enjoyed immediately before the appointed day.
(3) The new terms and conditions referred to in sub-paragraph (2) shall be such that—
(a)as long as a transferred officer is engaged in duties reasonably comparable to those in which he was engaged immediately before the appointed day, the scale of his salary or remuneration; and
(b)the other terms and conditions of his employment;
are taken as a whole not less favourable than those he enjoyed immediately before that day.
(4) A written statement given in accordance with section 4 of the Contracts of Employment and Redundancy Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 1965(1) shall not be regarded as a statement of new terms and conditions of employment for the purposes of sub-paragraph (2) unless the statement so indicates.
(5) A transferred officer shall not be taken to have been dismissed from his employment by a health and social services board by reason of redundancy and for the purposes of the Contracts of Employment and Redundancy Payments Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 and the Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Orders 1976 to 1982, his period of employment by a health and social services board shall count as a period of employment by the Executive and the transfer shall not break the continuity of the period of employment.
(6) Any question arising in relation to a transferred officer as to—
(a)whether he is or was employed wholly or mainly for the purposes mentioned in sub-paragraph (1);
(b)whether he is engaged in duties reasonably comparable to those in which he was engaged immediately before the appointed day; or
(c)whether his terms and conditions of employment taken as a whole are less favourable than those he enjoyed immediately before that day,
shall, if not otherwise determined, be referred for determination by an industrial tribunal whose decision shall be final.
(7) The Department may make regulations providing for the payment by the Executive, on such terms and subject to such conditions as may be specified in the regulations, of compensation to, or in respect of, any transferred officer who suffers subsequent to his transfer loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments (including superannuation rights) which is attributable to the provisions of this paragraph or who on grounds which the Department considers reasonable is unable or unwilling to accept employment with the Executive.
(8) Regulations under sub-paragraph (7) may include provision—
(a)as to the manner in which, the time within which and the person to whom any claim for compensation is to be made;
(b)for the determination by an industrial tribunal of questions arising under the regulations.
(9) Regulations under sub-paragraph (7)—
(a)shall be subject to negative resolution; and
(b)may have effect from a date earlier than that on which the regulations are made but not so as to place any person in a worse position than he would have been in if the regulations had effect only from the date of the making thereof.
(10) In this paragraph—
“terms and conditions of employment” includes terms and conditions relating to superannuation benefit;
“transferred officer” means an officer transferred under a scheme made under sub-paragraph (1).