Vol. 430 No. 5
144 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the action, if any, he will take with regard to companies which make large numbers of people redundant in small groups over relatively short periods of time and which consequently are not required to inform officials of his Department of these continuing periodic small redundancies.
The Protection of Employment Act, 1977, provides that in certain redundancy situations I must be notified 30 days in advance, as must workers' representatives.
These situation are:—
Dismissal for redundancy reasons over any period of 30 consecutive days of at least (a) five persons in an establishment normally employing more than 20 and less than 50 employees, (b) ten persons in an establishment normally employing at least 50 but less than 100 employees, (c) ten per cent of the number of employees in an establishment normally employing at least 100 but less than 300 employees, (d) thirty persons in an establishment normally employing 300 or more employees.
The main purpose of the Act is to ensure that the representatives of workers faced by a collective redundancy are notified and consulted in advance by the employer.
I am not aware of employers deliberately engineering collective redundancies in the way outlined by the Deputy. If, however, he wishes to provide me with information about specific instances I will undertake to have my Department examine the matter.
