asked the Minister for Labour if his attention has been drawn to the legal notices in a Dublin newspaper of 27th January, 1971, in connection with seven transport companies; and if he is in a position to state the number of non-manual employees who became redundant and who are not within the scope of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, owing to the income limit of £1,200.
Written Answers. - Redundancy Payments Scheme.
151.
I have seen the newspaper reports referred to in the question. I have been informed that, of the 500 employees involved, there were 30 who did not qualify for redundancy payments owing to the remuneration limit for non-manual workers of £1,200.
152.
asked the Minister for Labour the estimated net cost over and above the existing redundancy payments scheme of (a) relating the lump sum to weekly pay under age 41, (b) relating the lump sum to twice weekly pay over age 41 and (c) abolishing the lump sum limit.
The total cost of making the three changes referred to by the Deputy is estimated at £800,000, of which £550,000 would be chargeable to the Redundancy Fund. These figures are based on the assumption that redundancy experience as to numbers of redundancies, proportion of men and women, rates of pay, et cetera will be substantially similar to the current situation.
To make separate estimates of (a) and (b), it would be necessary to make an assumption as to the lump sum limit to operate. If the Deputy will inform me of what he has in mind, I will endeavour to let him have figures.
153.
asked the Minister for Labour the net additional cost in each case of the proposed improved provisions in the redundancy payments scheme by reference to paragraphs 23, 27, 32, 34, 35, 39 and 40 in the memorandum circulated with the Redundancy Payments Bill, 1970.
The information requested is given in the following statement:
Estimated Annual Cost to Redundancy Fund of Improvements in Redundancy Benefits.
|
Paragraph of Explanatory Memorandum |
Benefit |
Estimate |
|
23 |
(1) Extending the scope of the Act to cover workers for 4 years after they cease to be insurable under the Social Welfare Acts |
£45,000 |
|
27 |
(2) Reduction in the qualifying period from 208 to 104 weeks |
£140,000 |
|
34 |
(3) Providing for a minimum of 4 weekly payments |
|
|
32 |
(4) Reducing the waiting period for weekly redundancy payments from 2 weeks to 3 days |
Slight |
|
35 |
(5) Allowing each year of service over 41 years of age to count for 2 weekly payments instead of 1½ as heretofore |
£50,000 |
|
39 |
(6) Providing for an extra week's pay for each qualified redundant worker |
£45,000 |
|
40 |
(7) Increasing the maximum lump sum from the equivalent of 20 weeks' pay to 30 weeks' pay; the Fund to bear the full cost of the lump sum over the 20 week equivalent |
£80,000 |
NOTES:
(a) These estimates are based on the assumption that redundancy experience as to numbers, proportion of men and women, rates of pay, etc., will be substantially similar to the current situation.
(b) Each of the items Nos. (3) to (7) contains an element attributable to the additional workers who will be brought into benefit by the improvements referred to at (1) and (2).
(c) As certain benefits, i.e. Nos. (1) and (2), will bring in categories of workers who have not heretofore been covered by the Act and as the other benefits will be affected by the inclusion of these additional categories, the estimates made must be regarded as very approximate.