PART II

Redundancy Payment

6. —In this Part—

“cease” means cease either temporarily or permanently and from whatever cause;

“lock-out” means the closing of a place of employment, or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him in consequence of a dispute, done with a view to compelling those persons, or to aid another employer in compelling persons employed by him, to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

“notice of intention to claim” has the meaning assigned to it by section 12;

“redundancy certificate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 18;

“strike” means the cessation of work by a body of persons employed acting in combination, or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons employed to continue to work for an employer in consequence of a dispute, done as a means of compelling their employer or any person or body of persons employed, or to aid other employees in compelling their employer or any person or body of persons employed, to accept or not to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment.

7. —(1) An employee, if he is dismissed by his employer by reason of redundancy or is laid off or kept on short-time for the minimum period, shall, subject to this Act, be entitled to the payment of moneys which shall be known (and are in this Act referred to) as redundancy payment provided—

(a) he has been employed for the requisite period, and

(b) he was an employed contributor in employment which was insurable for all benefits under the Social Welfare Acts, 1952 to 1966, immediately before the date of the termination of his employment, or had ceased to be ordinarily employed in employment which was so insurable in the period of two years ending on that date.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the dismissal is attributable wholly or mainly to—

(a) the fact that his employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or has ceased or intends to cease, to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or

(b) the fact that the requirements of that business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where he was so employed have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), an employee shall be taken as having been laid off or kept on short-time for the minimum period if he has been laid off or kept on short-time for a period of four or more consecutive weeks, or for a period of six or more weeks which are not consecutive but which fall within a period of thirteen consecutive weeks.

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, where an employee who has been serving a period of apprenticeship training with an employer under an apprenticeship agreement is dismissed within one month after the end of that period, that employee shall not, by reason of that dismissal, be entitled to redundancy payment.

(5) In this section “requisite period” means a period of 208 weeks' continuous employment (within the meaning of Schedule 3) of the employee by the employer who dismissed him, laid him off or kept him on short-time, but excluding any period of employment with that employer before the employee had attained the age of 16 years.

8. —(1) Notwithstanding anything in section 7, where an employee who has been dismissed by reason of redundancy or laid off has, during the period of the four years immediately preceding the date of dismissal or the lay-off, been laid off for an average annual period of more than twelve weeks, the following provisions shall have effect:

(a) that employee shall not become entitled to redundancy payment by reason of dismissal or lay-off until a period equal to the average annual period of lay-off over the said four-year period in relation to that employee has elapsed after the date of dismissal or lay-off;

(b) if, before the termination of the period required to elapse under paragraph (a), that employee resumes work with the same employer, that employee shall not be entitled to redundancy payment in relation to that dismissal or lay-off;

(c) if, before the termination of the period required to elapse under paragraph (a), the employer offers to re-employ that employee and that employee unreasonably refuses the offer, he shall not be entitled to redundancy payment in relation to that dismissal or lay-off.

(2) In a case where this section applies, the period of four weeks first referred to in section 12 (2) or the period of thirteen weeks referred to in that section shall not commence until the expiration of the period (referred to in subsection (1) (a)) equal to the appropriate average annual period of lay-off.

9. —(1) For the purposes of this Part an employee shall, subject to this Part, be taken to be dismissed by his employer if but only if—

(a) the contract under which he is employed by the employer is terminated by the employer, whether by or without notice, or

(b) where under the contract under which he is employed by the employer he is employed for a fixed term, that term expires without being renewed under the same or a similar contract, or

(c) the employee terminates the contract under which he is employed by the employer without notice in circumstances (not falling within subsection (5)) such that he is entitled so to terminate it by reason of the employer's conduct.

(2) An employee shall not be taken for the purposes of this Part to be dismissed by his employer if his contract of employment is renewed, or he is re-engaged by the same employer under a new contract of employment, and—

(a) in a case where the provisions of the contract as renewed or of the new contract as to the capacity and place in which he is employed, and as to the other terms and conditions of his employment, do not differ from the corresponding provisions of the previous contract, the renewal or re-engagement takes effect immediately on the ending of his employment under the previous contract, or

(b) in any other case, the renewal or re-engagement is in pursuance of an offer in writing made by his employer before the ending of his employment under the previous contract, and takes effect either immediately on the ending of that employment or after an interval of not more than four weeks thereafter.

(3) (a) An employee shall not be taken for the purposes of this Part as having been dismissed by his employer if—

(i) he is re-engaged by another employer (hereinafter referred to as the new employer) immediately on the termination of his previous employment,

(ii) the re-engagement takes place with the agreement of the employee, the previous employer and the new employer,

(iii) before the commencement of the period of employment with the new employer the employee receives a statement in writing on behalf of the previous employer and the new employer which—

(A) sets out the terms and conditions of the employee's contract of employment with the new employer,

(B) specifies that the employee's period of service with the previous employer will, for the purposes of this Act, be regarded by the new employer as service with the new employer,

(C) contains particulars of the service mentioned in clause (B), and

(D) the employee notifies in writing the new employer that the employee accepts the statement required by this subparagraph.

(b) Where in accordance with this subsection an employee is re-engaged by the new employer, the service of that employee mentioned in paragraph (a) (ii) shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be service with the new employer.

(4) For the purposes of the application of subsection (2) to a contract under which the employment ends on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday—

(a) the renewal or re-engagement shall be treated as taking effect immediately on the ending of the employment under the previous contract if it takes effect on or before the next Monday after that Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and

(b) the interval of four weeks mentioned in subsection (2) (b) shall be calculated as if the employment had ended on that Monday.

(5) When an employee terminates his contract of employment without notice, being entitled to do so by reason of a lock-out by his employer, subsection (1) (c) shall not apply to that termination.

(6) Where by virtue of subsection (2) an employee is treated as not having been dismissed by reason of a renewal or re-engagement taking effect after an interval, then, in determining for the purposes of section 7 (1) whether he has been continuously employed for the requisite period, the period of that interval shall count as a period of employment.

(7) In determining for the purposes of this Act whether at a particular time before the commencement of this Act an employee was dismissed by his employer, the appropriate provisions of this section shall apply as if the matter to be decided occurred after such commencement.

10. —(1) This section shall have effect where—

(a) an employer gives notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and

(b) at a time within the obligatory period of that notice, the employee gives notice in writing to the employer to terminate the contract of employment on a date earlier than the date on which the employer's notice is due to expire.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), in the circumstances specified in subsection (1) the employee shall, for the purposes of this Part, be taken to be dismissed by his employer, and the date of dismissal in relation to that dismissal shall be the date on which the employee's notice expires.

(3) If, before the employee's notice is due to expire, the employer gives him notice in writing—

(a) requiring him to withdraw his notice terminating the contract of employment as mentioned in subsection (1) (b) and to continue in the employment until the date on which the employer's notice expires, and

(b) stating that, unless he does so, the employer will contest any liability to pay to him a redundancy payment in respect of the termination of his contract of employment,

but the employee unreasonably refuses to comply with the requirements of that notice, the employee shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment by virtue of subsection (2).

(4) In this section—

(a) if the actual period of the employer's notice (that is to say, the period beginning at the time when the notice is given and ending at the time when it expires) is equal to the minimum period which (whether by virtue of any enactment or otherwise) is required to be given by the employer to terminate the contract of employment, “the obligatory period”, in relation to that notice, means the actual period of the notice;

(b) in any other case,

“the obligatory period” , in relation to an employer's notice, means that period which, being equal to the minimum period referred to in paragraph (a), expires at the time when the employer's notice expires.

11. —(1) Where after the commencement of this Act an employee's employment ceases by reason of his employer's being unable to provide the work for which the employee was employed to do, and—

(a) it is reasonable in the circumstances for that employer to believe that the cessation of employment will not be permanent, and

(b) the employer gives notice to that effect to the employee prior to the cessation,

that cessation of employment shall be regarded for the purposes of this Act as lay-off.

(2) Where by reason of a diminution in the work provided for an employee by his employer (being work of a kind which under his contract the employee is employed to do) the employee's remuneration for any week is less than one-half of his normal weekly remuneration, he shall for the purposes of this Part be taken to be kept on short-time for that week.

12. —(1) An employee shall not be entitled to redundancy payment by reason of having been laid off or kept on short-time unless he gives to his employer notice (in this Part referred to as a notice of intention to claim) in writing of his intention to claim redundancy payment in respect of lay-off or short-time.

(2) An employee who has given a notice of intention to claim shall not be entitled to redundancy payment in pursuance of that notice unless within a period of one month from the date of that notice, or, where the matter has been referred to the Appeals Tribunal, within one month from the date of notification to the employee of the Tribunal's decision, he duly terminates his contract of employment by giving the notice required by that contract or, if no notice is so required, by giving to his employer not less than one week's notice in writing of the employee's intention to terminate that contract, and, before the service of the notice of intention to claim, either—

(a) he has been laid off or kept on short-time for four or more consecutive weeks of which the last before the service of the notice ended on the date of service thereof or ended not more than four weeks before that date, or

(b) he has been laid off or kept on short-time for a series of six or more weeks (of which not more than three were consecutive) within a period of thirteen weeks, where the last week of the series before the service of the notice ended on the date of service thereof or ended not more than four weeks before that date.

13. —(1) Subject to subsection (2), an employee shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment in pursuance of a notice of intention to claim if, on the date of service of that notice, it was reasonably to be expected that the employee (if he continued to be employed by the same employer) would, not later than four weeks after that date, enter upon a period of employment of not less than thirteen weeks during which he would not be laid off or kept on short-time for any week.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply unless, within seven days after the service of the notice of intention to claim, the employer gives to the employee notice (in this Part referred to as a counter-notice) in writing that he will contest any liability to pay to him a redundancy payment in pursuance of the notice of intention to claim.

(3) If, in a case where an employee gives notice of intention to claim and the employer gives a counter-notice, the employee continues or has continued, during the next four weeks after the date of service of the notice of intention to claim, to be employed by the same employer, and he is or has been laid off or kept on short-time for each of those weeks, it shall be conclusively presumed that the condition specified in subsection (1) was not fulfilled.

(4) For the purposes of section 12 (2) and for the purposes of subsection (3)—

(a) it is immaterial whether a series of weeks (whether it is four weeks, or four or more weeks, or six or more weeks) consists wholly of weeks for which the employee is laid off or wholly of weeks for which he is kept on short-time or partly of the one and partly of the other;

(b) no account shall be taken of any week for which an employee is laid off or kept on short-time where the lay-off or short-time is wholly or mainly attributable to a strike or a lock-out, whether the strike or lock-out is in the trade or industry in which the employee is employed or not and whether it is in the State or elsewhere.

14. —(1) Subject to subsection (2), an employee who has been dismissed shall not be entitled to redundancy payment if his employer, being entitled to terminate that employee's contract of employment without notice by reason of the employee's conduct, terminates the contract because of the employee's conduct—

(a) without notice,

(b) by giving shorter notice than that which, in the absence of such conduct, the employer would be required to give to terminate the contract, or

(c) by giving notice (other than such notice as is mentioned in subparagraph (b)) which includes, or is accompanied by, a statement in writing that the employer would, by reason of such conduct, be entitled to terminate the contract without notice.

(2) When an employee who has received the notice required by section 17 takes part, before the date of dismissal, in a strike and his employer by reason of such participation, terminates the contract of employment with the employee in a manner mentioned in subsection (1), that subsection shall not apply to such termination.

(3) Where an employee who has given notice to terminate his contract of employment by reason of lay-off or short-time takes part, before the expiry of the notice, in a strike and, by reason of such participation, is dismissed, subsection (1) shall not apply.

15. —(1) An employee who has received the notice required by section 17 shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment if in the period of two weeks ending on the date of dismissal—

(a) his employer has offered to renew that employee's contract of employment or to re-engage him under a new contract of employment,

(b) the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as to the capacity and place in which he would be employed and as to the other terms and conditions of his employment would not differ from the corresponding provisions of the contract in force immediately before his dismissal,

(c) the renewal or re-engagement would take effect on or before the date of dismissal, and

(d) he has unreasonably refused the offer.

(2) An employee who has received the notice required by section 17 shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment if in the period of two weeks ending on the date of dismissal—

(a) his employer has made to him in writing an offer to renew the employee's contract of employment or to re-engage him under a new contract of employment,

(b) the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as to the capacity and place in which he would be employed and as to the other terms and conditions of his employment would differ wholly or in part from the corresponding provisions of his contract in force immediately before his dismissal,

(c) the offer constitutes an offer of suitable employment in relation to the employee,

(d) the renewal or re-engagement would take effect not later than four weeks after the date of dismissal, and

(e) he has unreasonably refused the offer.

(3) Where a person who is entitled to a weekly payment has been offered suitable employment by the Employment Service and has unreasonably refused that offer, that person shall be disqualified from receiving a weekly payment for a period not exceeding six weeks.

16. —(1) Where the employer is a company, any reference in this Part to re-engagement by the employer shall be construed as a reference to re-engagement by that company or by an associated company, and any reference in this Part to an offer made by the employer shall be construed as including a reference to an offer made by an associated company.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not affect the operation of section 20 in a case where the previous owner and new owner (as defined by that section) are associated companies; and where that section applies, subsection (1) shall not apply.

(3) Where an employee is dismissed by his employer, and the employer is a company (in this subsection referred to as the employing company) which has one or more associated companies, then if—

(a) neither of the conditions specified in sections 7 (2) (a) and 7 (2) (b) is fulfilled, but

(b) one or other of those conditions would be fulfilled if the business of the employing company and the business of the associated company (or, if more than one, each of the associated companies) were treated as together constituting one business,

that condition shall for the purposes of this Part be taken to be fulfilled in relation to the dismissal of the employee.

(4) For the purposes of this section two companies shall be taken to be associated companies if one is a subsidiary of the other, or both are subsidiaries of a third company, and “associated company” shall be construed accordingly.

(5) In this section—

“company” includes any body corporate;

“subsidiary” has the same meaning as, by virtue of section 155 of the Companies Act, 1963 , it has for the purposes of that Act.

17. —(1) An employer who proposes to dismiss by reason of redundancy an employee who has not less than four years service with that employer shall, not later than two weeks before the date of dismissal, give to the employee notice in writing of the proposed dismissal and send to the Minister a copy of that notice.

(2) The Minister may make regulations for giving effect to this section and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, regulations under this section may relate to all or any of the following matters—

(a) the particulars to be stated in the notice,

(b) the method of service of the notice,

(c) the furnishing to the Minister of a copy of the notice and the time for furnishing such a copy.

(3) An employer who fails to comply with this section or who furnishes false information in a notice under this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

18. —(1) When an employer dismisses an employee by reason of redundancy he shall give to the employee a certificate (in this Part referred to as a redundancy certificate).

(2) Whenever an employee terminates his contract of employment in accordance with section 12 (2) his employer shall give him a redundancy certificate.

(3) The Minister may make regulations for giving effect to this section and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, may prescribe the particulars to be stated on a redundancy certificate.

(4) An employer who fails to comply with this section or who furnishes false information in a redundancy certificate shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

19. —(1) Upon the dismissal by reason of redundancy of an employee who is entitled under this Part to redundancy payment, or upon the termination by such an employee in accordance with section 12 (2) of his contract of employment, his employer shall pay to him an amount which is referred to in this Act as the lump sum.

(2) Schedule 3 shall apply in relation to the lump sum.

(3) The Minister may by order amend Schedule 3.

20. —(1) This section shall have effect where—

(a) a change occurs (whether by virtue of a sale or other disposition or by operation of law) in the ownership of a business for the purposes of which a person is employed, or of a part of such a business, and

(b) in connection with that change the person by whom the employee is employed immediately before the change occurs (in this section referred to as the previous owner) terminates the employee's contract of employment, whether by or without notice.

(2) If, by agreement with the employee, the person (in this section referred to as the new owner) who immediately after the change occurs is the owner of the business or of the part of the business in question as the case may be renews the employee's contract of employment (with the substitution of the new owner for the previous owner) or re-engages him under a new contract of employment, section 9 (2) shall have effect as if the renewal or re-engagement had been a renewal or re-engagement by the previous owner (without any substitution of the new owner for the previous owner).

(3) If the new owner offers to renew the employee's contract of employment (with the substitution of the new owner for the previous owner) or to re-engage him under a new contract of employment, but the employee refuses the offer, section 15 (1) or section 15 (2) (as may be appropriate) shall have effect, subject to subsection (4) of this section, in relation to that offer and refusal as it would have had effect in relation to the like offer made by the previous owner and a refusal of that offer by the employee.

(4) For the purposes of the operation, in accordance with subsection (3) of this section, of section 15 (1) or 15 (2) in relation to an offer made by the new owner,—

(a) the offer shall not be treated as one whereby the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, as the case may be, would differ from the corresponding provisions of the contract as in force immediately before the dismissal by reason only that the new owner would be substituted for the previous owner as the employer, and

(b) no account shall be taken of that substitution in determining whether the refusal of the offer was unreasonable.

(5) Subsections (1) to (4) shall have effect (subject to the necessary modifications) in relation to a case where—

(a) the person by whom a business, or part of a business, is owned immediately before a change is one of the persons by whom (whether as partners, trustees or otherwise) it is owned immediately after the change, or

(b) the persons by whom a business, or part of a business, is owned immediately before a change (whether as partners, trustees or otherwise) include the person by whom, or include one or more of the persons by whom, it is owned immediately after the change,

as those provisions have effect where the previous owner and the new owner are wholly different persons.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring any variation of a contract of employment by agreement between the parties to be treated as constituting a termination of the contract.

21. —(1) Where, in accordance with any enactment or rule of law, any act on the part of an employer or any event affecting an employer (including, in the case of an individual, his death) operates so as to terminate a contract under which an employee is employed by him, that act or event shall for the purposes of this Act be treated as a termination of the contract by the employer, if apart from this subsection, it would not constitute a termination of the contract by him.

(2) Where—

(a) subsection (1) applies,

(b) the employee's contract of employment is not renewed, and

(c) he is not re-engaged under a new contract, as provided by section 9 (2),

he shall for the purposes of this Act be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the circumstances in which the contract is not renewed and he is not re-engaged (as provided by the said section 9 (2)) are wholly or mainly attributable to a fact specified in section 7 (2) (a) or 7 (2) (b).

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), section 7 (2) (a), in so far as it relates to the employer ceasing or intending to cease to carry on the business, shall be construed as if the reference to the employer included a reference to any person to whom, in consequence of the act or event in question, power to dispose of the business has passed.

(4) In this section reference to section 9 (2) includes reference to that section as applied by section 20 (2).

22. —(1) Part I of Schedule 2 shall have effect in relation to the death of an employer.

(2) Part 2 of Schedule 2 shall have effect in relation to the death of an employee.

23. —(1) This section shall apply where—

(a) a lump sum is paid to an employee under section 19, whether in respect of dismissal, lay-off or short-time,

(b) the contract of employment under which he was employed (in this section referred to as the previous contract) is renewed, whether by the same or another employer, or he is re-engaged under a new contract of employment, whether by the same or another employer, and

(c) the circumstances of the renewal or re-engagement are such that, in determining for the purposes of section 7 (1) or Schedule 3 whether at any subsequent time he has been continuously employed for the requisite period, or for what period he has been continuously employed, the continuity of his period of employment would, apart from this section, be treated as not having been broken by the termination of the previous contract and the renewal or re-engagement.

(2) In determining for the purposes of section 7 (1) or section 19 in a case to which this section applies whether at any subsequent time an employee has been continuously employed for the requisite period, or for what period he has been continuously employed, the continuity of the period of employment shall be treated as having been broken at the date which was the date of dismissal in relation to the lump sum mentioned in subsection (1) (a), and any time before that date shall be disregarded.

(3) For the purposes of this section a lump sum shall be treated as having been paid if the whole of the payment has been paid to the employee by the employer or if the Minister has paid a sum to the employee in respect of the redundancy payment under section 32.

24. —Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, an employee shall not be entitled to a lump sum unless before the end of the period of thirty weeks beginning on the date of dismissal or the date of termination of employment—

(a) the payment has been agreed and paid, or

(b) the employee has made a claim for the payment by notice in writing given to the employer, or

(c) a question as to the right of the employee to the payment, or as to the amount of the payment, has been referred to the Tribunal under section 39.

25. —(1) An employee shall not be entitled to redundancy payment if on the date of dismissal he is outside the State, unless under his contract of employment he ordinarily worked in the State.

(2) An employee who under his contract of employment ordinarily works outside the State shall not be entitled to redundancy payment unless, immediately before he commenced to work outside the State, he was domiciled in the State and was in the employment of the employer concerned and unless—

(a) he was in the State in accordance with the instructions of his employer on the date of dismissal, or

(b) he had not been afforded a reasonable opportunity by his employer of being in the State on that date.

(3) In computing, for the purposes of this Act, for what period of service a person was in continuous employment, any period of service in the employment of the employer concerned while the employee was outside the State shall be deemed to have been service in the employment of that employer within the State.

(4) Where an employee who has worked for his employer outside the State becomes entitled to redundancy payment under this Act, the employer in making any lump sum payment due to the employee under section 19 shall be entitled to deduct from that payment any redundancy payment to which that employee may have been entitled under a statutory scheme relating to redundancy in the State in which he was working.