Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 January 2013
419. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on the situation workers in the meat industry find themselves in where factories have had to close for indefinite duration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3366/13]
View answerIt is understood that some or all of the employees concerned may be in a lay-off situation. The Department is not aware of any of the employees concerned having been made redundant to date. Jobseeker's benefit is a weekly payment to people out of work and covered by social insurance. To qualify for jobseeker's benefit a person must:
- be unemployed;
- be under 66 years of age;
- have enough social insurance contributions;
- be capable of work;
- be available for and genuinely seeking work; and
- have had a substantial loss of employment and as a result be unemployed for at least 3 days out of any 6.
If a person does not qualify for jobseeker's benefit they may qualify for means tested jobseeker's allowance. Where people are in a lay-off situation they may be regarded as unemployed and as having suffered a substantial loss of employment. Subject to the general scheme criteria, workers would usually be entitled to claim jobseeker’s benefit or allowance in such circumstances.
Where an employee has been put in a lay-off situation or put on short-time working hours, or a mixture of both, either for four consecutive weeks or for a broken series of six weeks where all six weeks occur within a 13 week period, he/she can serve written notice to his/her employer stating his/her intention to claim a redundancy lump sum payment. In these situations, an employer can, within seven days from the date of notice from the employee, give a counter notice by offering the employee not less than thirteen weeks unbroken employment commencing within 4 weeks of the employee serving notice.
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 statutory 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.
