asked the Minister for Labour if he considers it appropriate to amend the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, in view of the many anomalies that have arisen since the Act came into operation and that the present system is not equitable to the claimants in many respects.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Redundancy Payments Act, 1967.
15.
I have no proposal at present for amendment of the Redundancy Payments Acts.
The experience of my Department and the information available to them do not support the contentions in the question or suggest the need for urgent review of the legislation.
The Deputy does not appear to be aware that since the 1967 Act was enacted there have been three amending Redundancy Payments Acts, 1971, 1973 and 1979. These provided opportunities for the removal of anomalies and difficulties which had emerged in the operation of the legislation based on working experiences of a number of years and the legislation is now considered to be working well.
So far as the rights of employees are concerned, the Redundancy Payments Acts provide machinery, in the form of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which is readily accessible for the resolution of disputes and determination of entitlements. The Act also provides for payments of statutory lump sums to employees from the Redundancy and Employers' Insolvency Fund where the employers concerned refuse or fail to make those payments. There are, therefore, arrangements which provide quick redress for employees as regards both establishment of their entitlements and payments of lump sums due.