Vol. 444 No. 6
32 Mr. E. Kenny asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the number of employers who notified him of impending collective redundancies during the course of the past 12 months; the number of cases in which he requested the employer concerned to enter into consultations with his Department to seek solutions to the problems posed by the imposed redundancies; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The Protection of Employment Act, 1977, is the legislation under which my Department is notified of collective redundancies. The main purpose of the Act, which is based on a 1975 EC Directive on collective redundancies, is to give greater protection to groups of workers faced by redundancy. The Act is to be amended shortly to implement Council Directive 92/56/EEC which amends the 1975 Directive.
I was notified of a total of 118 collective redundancies during 1993 under the terms of section 12 of the Protection of Employment Act, 1977. The stated number of workers affected was 4,889. In the 12 months up to the end of May 1994 I received 97 notifications in which the stated number of workers affected was 3,516.
The competitiveness and employment protection unit of my Department, are informed of each notification received and they have given support and advice over the last 12 months, although not specifically under the terms of the Protection of Employment Act, 1977, to a large number of firms experiencing difficulties including those who propose to make collective redundancies.
