Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 31 January 2013
94. Deputy Jerry Buttimer asked the Minister for Social Protection if a person who has been made redundant, but has not yet received the redundancy payment, may accept a new job offer with a different employer and still receive the redundancy payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4840/13]
View answerWhere an eligible employee is made redundant his/her eligibility for a statutory redundancy payment is not affected by accepting a job offer with a different employer. The exception to this is where the employment was subject to a transfer of undertaking, that is, where one company assumes responsibility for another including maintaining the employee’s continuity of service. The purpose of the redundancy payments scheme is to compensate workers, under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 - 2012, for the loss of their jobs by reason of redundancy. Compensation is based on the worker’s length of reckonable service and reckonable weekly remuneration. An eligible employee is entitled to two weeks’ pay for every year of service, plus a bonus week, subject to a ceiling of €600 per week.
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.
It is the responsibility of the employer to pay statutory redundancy to all their eligible employees. 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 and will seek to recover the debt from the employer.
