Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 May 2020
956. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps taken to ensure that employers cannot keep staff on indefinite lay-off in order to avoid redundancy payments at the end of a two year period. [7576/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe provisions of Section 12 of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (as amended) provide that an employee who has been temporarily laid-off or kept on short-time for four consecutive weeks, or for a series of six weeks within a thirteen week period of which not more than three are consecutive has an entitlement to claim redundancy from their employer.
These provisions were not considered adequate to deal with the current emergency situation. As a result of Covid-19, there have been immediate and unprecedented volumes of temporary lay-offs and short-time work and there is a very real potential for these situations to become protracted. Under the existing provisions these lay-off and short-time situations could result in a large number of redundancies in a very short period of time. Employers are obliged to pay redundancy entitlements to employees who have been temporarily laid off after the periods of time currently provided for in Section 12.
In the current emergency situation the existing timelines set out in Section 12 of the Act would have serious unintended and detrimental financial impacts on businesses and employees over a short period of time. Significant numbers of redundancies over a short period of time would have an adverse impact on the potential for a business to recover, which in turn would create many insolvency and bankruptcy situations. This will only exacerbate the risk of further job losses. Measures to assist the ongoing attachment between employees and their employer during the crisis is important.
For these reasons emergency legislation has been enacted by way of Section 29 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 to mitigate against the risks to businesses outlined above and to protect for as long as possible the attachment to employment for employees.
The existing provisions of Section 12 have effectively been suspended during the emergency period, from 13th March 2020 to 31st May 2020, in respect of an employee who has been laid off or kept on short time due to the effects of measures required to be taken by the employer in order to comply with, or as a consequence of, Government policy to prevent, limit, minimise or slow the spread of infection of Covid-19.
Extending the end date of the emergency period is provided for in legislation and an extension is currently being considered. In considering whether the end date will be extended, the Government will have regard to the principles which are set out in Section 29 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 and in particular the need to mitigate against the increased risk of insolvencies in the event of mass redundancies over a short period of time resulting in permanent job losses.
It is important to note that an employees’ right to claim redundancy after a temporary period of lay off or short-time work has not been removed, rather it has been deferred for a temporary period in this emergency situation.
