Dan Neville
Question:306 Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation if he will respond to a query (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35256/10]
View answerWednesday, 6 October 2010
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In circumstances where a person is placed on reduced working hours by their employer e.g. a three or a four day week, the redundancy entitlement is calculated on the basis of a full week, provided the employee was put on reduced hours within one year (52 weeks) of being made redundant. If the person is made redundant after the first year of reduced working hours and if it is clear that the employee fully accepted the reduced working hours as being his normal working week, never requesting a return to a full time week, the employee is deemed to have accepted the reduced hours as the normal working week. In this situation the gross pay for redundancy is based on the reduced working hours.
On the other hand, if the employee never accepted the reduced working hours as his "normal" hours and was constantly seeking to be put back on full time working, the employee could then be deemed not to have accepted the reduced hours as normal. In these circumstances, the redundancy entitlement should be calculated at the full-time rate of pay. Where an employee makes a request to be placed on reduced working hours, for his own reasons, and the employer agrees, then the redundancy entitlement is based on the reduced working hours.