okay in this video I'm gonna take a look at nine things that I think you should
know about redundancy the type of redundancy I'm talking about is a non
collective redundancy in other words it's an individual redundancy it may
occur to you you may be being made redundant in your job or your position
may be flagged up for redundancy or at risk of redundancy or you may be an
employer who needs to make a position redundant so this video I hope will be
of benefit okay let's take a look firstly you need to understand what
redundancy is the definition of redundancy is set out in the redundancy
payments act 1967 there is five different aspects to it there's five possibilities and each of
them qualifies or constitutes a redundancy for the purpose of the
legislation so it's very very important the first one is the fact that the employer
has ceased or intends to cease to carry on the business for the purposes of which
the employee was employed so that is an obvious redundancy situation and one
with which you're probably familiar it's the standard understanding by people of
what redundancy is there's four other types though the fact that the
requirements of the business for employees to carry out work of a
particular kind in the place where you so employed have ceased or diminished or
expected to cease or diminish this is a slight variation the business is not
closing up but a particular section perhaps a particular type of work is no
longer required the third definition then is the fact that the employer has decided
to carry on business with fewer or no employees in other words the employer
has looked at the resources and decided to organize his affairs or her affairs
in a different way and the consequence of that is that fewer employees will be
required the fourth possibility is the employer has decided that the work for
which the employee had been employed should henceforth be done in a different
manner for which the employee is not sufficiently
qualified or trained so the requirement for the work is something that the
employee simply cannot fulfill and doesn't have the capacity or capability
or isn't qualified or trained to do the particular work because the nature of
the work has changed it should be done or will be done in a different manner
that's another definition of redundancy remember there are five and finally the
fact that the employer has decided that the work for which the employee had been
employed should be done by a person who was also capable of doing other work
so this is the situation where a company may be downsizing a little bit and
taking certain tasks off an individual or taking all of the tasks off an
individual making the role redundant and giving those tasks to another individual
who can also do other work so we probably all know situations in the
workplace where this has occured as well they're the five definitions of redundancy
according to the legislation and it's critical to understand and recognize
them because you may be looking to bring some sort of a claim to the work
relations commission on foot of a redundancy or you may be wishing to challenge
your redundancy or the decision to make you redundant but before you do that
you need to look at the definition and see whether you have a reasonable chance
of succeeding or not so the second thing you need to understand about redundancy
is that there are basically two claims which arise from a redundancy situation
one you if you're an employee may be claiming that it was a sham redundancy
in other words it wasn't genuine again refer to the five categories we've
already taken a look at or you were unfairly selected for redundancy and
someone else should have been chosen before you these are the two causes of
action on two grounds for a redundancy based claim to the workplace relations
commission and that is where it goes so you're saying it's a sham redundancy it
wasn't genuine and essentially it was an unfair dismissal or you're saying you were
unfairly dismissed because you were unfairly selected for redundancy if you
can prove one or other of those things you may have a valid genuine claim that can
succeed however if it's a genuine redundancy and
if you have been fairly selected then genuine redundancy
is a lawful defence to claim for unfair dismissal in terms of redundancy
payments to qualify for a payment you need at least 104 weeks of continuous
service in the employment that is two years if you qualify then you are titled to two
weeks pay for each year of reckonable service and an extra weeks normal pay
subject to a maximum of 600 euros per week you are disentitled to redundancy
payment if you are dismissed for misconduct or if you refuse to accept
alternative employment so the alternative must have the same terms and
conditions essentially as the previous role so it must be a reasonable
alternative number five a layoff or short time situation may give rise to
the right to an employee serving a notice essentially claiming redundancy
however the employer can serve a counter notice if he believes he would be able
to provide work within four weeks of receiving the notice from the employee
this work must last for at least 13 weeks so this is a situation where there is a
layoff for a short time and the employer genuinely believes it's only for a
temporary period then it is not a genuine redundancy however if it is for longer
than a temporary period and the employee has served notice well then ultimately he's
able to claim redundancy if no work is forthcoming from the employer number six
the notice of redundancy the employee is entitled to at least two
weeks notice of the proposed dismissal that's according to the legislation
however that is only a statutory minimum your contract of employment may give you
a greater notice period entitlement so you need to look at your contract if
you are an employee and this is occurring if the employer is unable to
pay there is a scheme run by the Department of Employment Affairs and
Social Protection the insolvency payment scheme once certain criteria are met you
may be paid from this fund any disputes in relation to a redundancy or proposed redundancy
must be referred to the workplace relations commission and employers
conduct during redundancy is important the employer essentially must act
reasonably in arriving at the decision to terminate the employment so he should
give the employee the opportunity to put forward suggestions to save his job or
to do alternative work or suggest ways that the business could be run more
efficiently to obviate the need for redundancy the type of objective
criteria also which the employer should use should he needs to have objective
criteria like which he chooses one employer employee rather over another
and he should really operate or she should operate some sort of a matrix
situation some sort of a decision making matrix which allows him to arrive at an
objective and fair and a reasonable decision based on fair and objective
reasonable criteria he can't just use it as a method by
which to get rid of somebody with whom the employer is unhappy so that's the
situation in relation to redundancy I hope you find this video useful
there are nine things that you need to know about redundancy in Ireland a non
collective redundancy and if you find the video useful you might give it a thumbs
up down below and you may be interested in subscribing to my youtube channel