Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 January 2013
156. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Social Protection if her Department will meet the cost of the statutory redundancy and unpaid holiday pay of the workers who lost their jobs in a company (details supplied) as per the agreement between the workers and Deloitte and Touche. [4103/13]
View answerThe company in question was recently put into receivership and it is understood that it is the receiver’s intention to seek a buyer for all or part of the business. My Department is not aware of any of the employees concerned having been made redundant to date. In the event that any of the employees concerned are eventually made redundant they may be eligible for a statutory redundancy payment under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2012. In order to be eligible for a redundancy lump sum payment, an employee must:
- have at least two years continuous service;
- be in employment which is insurable under the Social Welfare Acts;
- be over the age of 16; and
- have been made redundant as a result of a genuine redundancy situation meaning that the job no longer exists and he/she is not replaced.
Under the scheme, an eligible employee is entitled to two weeks’ pay for every year of service, plus a bonus week, subject to a gross weekly salary ceiling of €600.
It is the employer’s responsibility to pay statutory redundancy payments in the first instance. Where an employer can prove to the satisfaction of the Department that it is unable to pay statutory redundancy to its eligible employees the Department will make lump sum payments directly to those employees. Such payments raise a debt against the employer which the Department will seek to recover.
The purpose of the insolvency payments scheme is to protect certain outstanding pay-related entitlements due to employees because of their employer being insolvent as defined by the rules of the scheme (for example, liquidation or receivership). These entitlements include wages, holiday pay, sick pay, payment in lieu of minimum notice due under the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Acts, 1973-2001, and certain pension contributions. Various other statutory awards made by the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), Rights Commissioners, etc., are also covered by the scheme.
Some or all of the employees concerned may have entitlements under the insolvency payments scheme. As yet the Department has received no applications under the scheme. In the event of the business winding-up the Minister for Social Protection would be a preferential creditor in respect of any statutory redundancy lump sum payments made by the Department or payments under the insolvency payments scheme.
