REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS ACT, 1967

SCHEDULE 1 Weekly Payments from the Redundancy Fund

Weekly Payments from the Redundancy Fund

Section 30.

1. Subject to paragraph 2, the amount of a weekly payment shall be equivalent to 50 per cent. of the employee's normal weekly remuneration.

2. The total amount being paid to a person in a week in respect of the following—

a weekly payment, unemployment benefit under the Social Welfare Acts, 1952 to 1966, disability benefit under those Acts, maternity allowance under those Acts, unemployment assistance under the Unemployment Assistance Acts, 1933 to 1966,

shall not exceed 90 per cent. of that person's normal weekly remuneration; provided that a person shall not receive in respect of unemployment benefit, disability benefit, maternity allowance or unemployment assistance less than that to which that person would, but for this Act, have been entitled.

3. Subject to paragraph 2, weekly payment shall, in the case of a person entitled to unemployment benefit, disability benefit, maternity allowance or unemployment assistance, be paid to that person in addition to such benefit.

4. A weekly payment shall not be paid to a person entitled thereto until the expiration of the period of two weeks beginning on the date of the termination of his employment and shall not be paid in respect of that two-week period.

5. A weekly payment shall not be paid to a person in respect of any period unless during that period that person was not gainfully employed and the fact that he was not so employed could not reasonably be attributed to that person's own failure or refusal to seek or accept suitable gainful employment.

6. A person entitled to a weekly payment shall, subject to paragraph 7, be paid one weekly payment in respect of each year of continuous employment after he has attained the age of sixteen years (as calculated in accordance with Schedule 3) with the employer who dismissed him by reason of redundancy.

7. In calculating years of continuous employment for the purpose of paragraph 6, each period of two such years during the whole of which the person entitled to the weekly payment was 41 years of age or older shall be reckoned as three completed years of continuous employment.

8. Whenever a person who has received a weekly payment obtains employment he shall not receive any further weekly payments; provided that if he subsequently becomes unemployed, is laid-off, or is absent from work through sickness and is by reason of such absence entitled to disability benefit under the Act of 1952, he shall, subject to paragraph 5, thereupon become eligible for the weekly payments which stood unpaid when he obtained that employment.

9. Whenever a person entitled to a weekly payment obtains employment before the expiration of the two-week period mentioned in paragraph 4 he shall not receive a weekly payment; provided that if he subsequently becomes unemployed, is laid-off, or is absent from work through sickness and is by reason of such absence entitled to disability benefit under the Act of 1952, he shall, subject to paragraph 5, thereupon become entitled to the weekly payments to which he would have become entitled had he not obtained employment in that two-week period.

10. Nothing in this Schedule shall be construed as conferring on an employee a right to more than one weekly payment in respect of any one week or part of a week.

11. Normal weekly remuneration shall for the purposes of this Schedule be calculated in accordance with paragraphs 13 to 23 of Schedule 3.

12. Where a person's entitlement to a weekly payment is applicable to part of a week only, the payment in respect of that part of a week shall be calculated by reference to one-sixth of the full weekly payment for each day, excluding Sunday, in that part of the week.

13. Notwithstanding anything in paragraph 5, 8 or 9, a person who is undergoing a course of training arranged or approved by An Chomhairle Oiliúna shall not be disentitled to receive a weekly payment for the period of such training on the ground only that he is ineligible to receive unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance for that period.

14. A person shall not be entitled to a weekly payment unless he is normally resident within the State.

SCHEDULE 2 Part I Death of Employer or of Employee

Part I

Death of Employer or of Employee

Section 22.

1. This Part shall have effect in relation to an employee where his employer (in this Part referred to as the deceased employer) dies.

2. Section 20 shall not apply to any change where by the ownership of the business, for the purposes of which the employee was employed by the deceased employer, passes to a personal representative of the deceased employer.

3. Where, by virtue of section 21, the death of the deceased employer is to be treated for the purposes of this Act as a termination by him of the contract of employment, the employee shall nevertheless not be treated for those purposes as having been dismissed by the deceased employer if—

(a) his contract of employment is renewed by a personal representative of the deceased employer, or he is re-engaged under a new contract of employment by such a personal representative, and

(b) the renewal or re-engagement takes effect not later than eight weeks after the death of the deceased employer.

4. Where, by reason of the death of the deceased employer, the employee is treated for the purposes of this Act as having been dismissed by him, he shall not be entitled to a redundancy payment in respect of that dismissal if—

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

(b) in accordance with the particulars specified in that offer the renewal or re-engagement would take effect not later than eight weeks after the death of the deceased employer,

(c) either—

(i) 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 the death, or

(ii) if, notwithstanding that in accordance with the particulars specified in that offer the provisions mentioned in subparagraph (i) would differ (wholly or in part) from the corresponding provisions of the contract in force immediately before the death, the offer constitutes an offer of suitable employment in relation to the employee,

and

(d) the employee has unreasonably refused that offer.

5. For the purposes of paragraph 4—

(a) an offer shall not be treated as one whereby the provisions of the contract as renewed, or of the new contract, would differ from the corresponding provisions of the contract in force immediately before the death of the deceased employer by reason only that the personal representative would be substituted as the employer for the deceased employer, and

(b) account shall not be taken of that substitution in determining whether the refusal of the offer was unreasonable.

6. Where by virtue of section 21 the death of the deceased employer is to be treated as a termination by him of the contract of employment, any reference in section 21 (2) to section 9 (2) shall be construed as including a reference to paragraph 3 of this Schedule.

7. Where the employee has before the death of the deceased employer been laid off or kept on short-time for one or more than one week, but has not given to the deceased employer notice of intention to claim, then if after the death of the deceased employer—

(a) his contract of employment is renewed, or he is re-engaged under a new contract, as mentioned in paragraph 3 (a) or 3 (b) of this Schedule, and

(b) after the renewal or re-engagement, he is laid off or kept on short-time for one or more weeks by the personal representative of the deceased employer,

sections 12 and 13 shall apply as if the week in which the deceased employer died and the first week of the employee's employment by the personal representative were consecutive weeks, and any reference in those sections to four weeks or thirteen weeks shall be construed accordingly.

8. Paragraph 9 or (as the case may be) paragraph 10 shall have effect where the employee has given to the deceased employer notice of intention to claim, and—

(a) the deceased employer has died before the end of the next four weeks after the service of that notice, and

(b) the employee has not terminated the contract of employment by notice expiring before the death of the deceased employer.

9. If in the circumstances specified in paragraph 8 the employee's contract of employment is not renewed by a personal representative of the deceased employer before the end of the next four weeks after the service of the notice of intention to claim, and he is not re-engaged under a new contract by such a personal representative before the end of those four weeks, sections 12 (1) and 12 (2) and section 13 (4) shall apply as if—

(a) the deceased employer had not died, and

(b) the employee had terminated the contract of employment by a week's notice (or, if under the contract he is required to give more than a week's notice to terminate the contract, he had terminated it by the minimum notice which he is so required to give) expiring at the end of those four weeks,

but sections 13 (1) to 13 (3) shall not apply.

10. (1) This paragraph shall have effect where, in the circumstances specified in paragraph 8, the employee's contract of employment is renewed by a personal representative of the deceased employer before the end of the next four weeks after the service of the notice of intention to claim, or he is re-engaged under a new contract by such a personal representative before the end of those four weeks, and—

(a) he was laid off or kept on short-time by the deceased employer for one or more of those weeks, and

(b) he is laid off or kept on short-time by the personal representative for the week, or for the next two or more weeks, following the renewal or re-engagement.

(2) Where the conditions specified in subparagraph (1) are fulfilled, sections 12 and 13 shall apply as if all the weeks for which the employee was laid off or kept on short-time as mentioned in the said subparagraph (1) were consecutive weeks during which he was employed (but laid off or kept on short-time) by the same employer.

11. In paragraphs 7 to 10 “week” and “notice of intention to claim” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by sections 2 and 12.

12. Where by virtue of paragraph 3 the employee is treated as not having been dismissed by reason of a renewal or re-engagement taking effect after the death of the deceased employer, then, in determining, for the purposes of section 7, whether he has been continuously employed for the requisite period, the interval between the death and the date on which the renewal or re-engagement takes effect shall count as a period of employment with the personal representative of the deceased employer, if, apart from this paragraph, it would not count for that purpose as such a period of employment.

13. For the purposes of the application, in accordance with section 4 (3), of any provisions of this Act to an employee who was employed in a private household, any reference to a personal representative in this Part shall be construed as including a reference to any person to whom, otherwise than in pursuance of a sale or other disposition for valuable consideration, the management of the household has passed in consequence of the death of the deceased employer.

14. Subject to the preceding provisions of this Part, in relation to an employer who has died—

(a) any reference in this Act to the doing of anything by, or in relation to, an employer shall be construed as including a reference to the doing of that thing by, or in relation to, any personal representative of the deceased employer, and

(b) any reference in this Act to a thing required or authorised to be done by, or in relation to, an employer shall be construed as including a reference to anything which, in accordance with any provision of this Act as modified by this Part (including subparagraph (a)), is required or authorised to be done by, or in relation to, any personal representative of his.

15. Where by virtue of any provision of this Act, as modified by this Part, a personal representative of the deceased employer is liable to pay a redundancy payment, or part of a redundancy payment, and that liability had not accrued before the death of the deceased employer, it shall be treated for all purposes as if it were a liability of the deceased employer which had accrued immediately before his death.

Part II

16. Where an employer has given notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment and before that notice expires the employee dies, Part II of this Act shall apply as if the contract had been duly terminated by the employer by notice expiring on the date of the employee's death.

17. Where an employer has given notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and has offered to renew his contract of employment, or to re-engage him under a new contract, then if—

(a) the employee dies without having either accepted or refused the offer, and

(b) the offer has not been withdrawn before his death,

section 15 (1) or 15 (2) (as the case may be) shall apply as if for “the employee has unreasonably refused” there were substituted “it would have been unreasonable on the part of the employee to refuse”.

18. (1) Where, in the circumstances specified in sections 10 (1) (a) and 10 (1) (b), the employee dies before the notice given by him under section 10 (1) (b) is due to expire and before the employer has given him notice under section 10 (3), section 10 (3) and section 10 (4) shall apply as if the employer had given him such notice and he had complied with it.

(2) Where, in the circumstances specified in sections 10 (1) (a) and 10 (1) (b), the employee dies before his notice given under section 10 (1) (b) is due to expire but after the employer has given him notice under section 10 (3), sections 10 (3) and 10 (4) shall apply as if the circumstances were that the employee had not died and had complied with the last-mentioned notice.

19. (1) Where an employee has given notice of intention to claim and dies before he has given notice to terminate his contract of employment and before the period specified in section 12 (2) the said section 12 (2) shall not apply.

(2) Where an employee, who has given notice of intention to claim, dies within seven days after the service of that notice, and before the employer has given a counter-notice, the provisions of sections 12 and 13 shall apply as if the employer had given a counter-notice within those seven days.

(3) In this paragraph “notice of intention to claim” and “counter-notice” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by sections 12 and 13.

20. In relation to the making of a claim by a personal representative of a deceased employee who dies before the end of the period of 30 weeks beginning on the date of dismissal or termination of employment, section 24 shall apply with the substitution for “30 weeks” of “one year”.

21. Subject to the preceding provisions of this Part, in relation to an employee who has died—

(a) any reference in this Act to the doing of anything by, or in relation to, an employee shall be construed as including a reference to the doing of that thing by, or in relation to, any personal representative of the deceased employee, and

(b) any reference in this Act to a thing required or authorised to be done by, or in relation to, an employee shall be construed as including a reference to anything which, in accordance with any provision of this Act as modified by this Part (including subparagraph (a)), is required or authorised to be done by, or in relation to, any personal representative of his.

22. Any right to a redundancy payment which had not accrued before the employee's death shall devolve on his personal representative.

23. In relation to any case where, under any provision contained in Part II of this Act as modified by the preceding provisions of this Part, the Tribunal has power to determine that an employer shall be liable to pay to a personal representative of a deceased employee either—

(a) the whole of a redundancy payment to which he would have been entitled apart from another provision therein mentioned, or

(b) such part of such a redundancy payment as the Tribunal thinks fit,

any reference in paragraph 22 to a right to a redundancy payment shall be construed as including a reference to any right to receive the whole or part of a redundancy payment if the Tribunal determines that the employer shall be liable to pay it.

SCHEDULE 3 Amount of Lump Sum

Amount of Lump Sum

Section 19.

1. The amount of the lump sum shall be equivalent to the aggregate of the following—

(a) the product of one-half of the employee's normal weekly remuneration and the number of years of continuous employment, with the employer in whose employment he was on the date of dismissal, between the date on which the employee attained the age of sixteen years and the date on which he attained the age of forty-one years, and

(b) the product of the employee's normal weekly remuneration on the date of his dismissal and the number of years of continuous employment, with the employer in whose employment he was on the date of dismissal, after the employee had attained the age of forty-one years.

2. The lump sum shall not exceed an amount equivalent to twenty weeks' normal weekly remuneration.

3. (a) For the purpose of ascertaining, for the purposes of paragraph 1, the number of years of continuous employment, the number of weeks in the period of continuous employment shall be ascertained in accordance with this Schedule and the result shall be divided by 52.

(b) In ascertaining the number of weeks in the period of continuous employment, a week which under this Schedule is not allowable as reckonable service shall be disregarded.

(c) When the division required under subparagraph (a) produces a remainder of 26 or more weeks, this remaining period of 26 (or more) weeks shall be counted as a year of continuous employment but if that division produces a remainder of less than 26 weeks that period shall be disregarded.

(d) When the total number of years of continuous employment as ascertained in accordance with subparagraphs (a) to (c) falls to be divided for the purposes of paragraphs 1 (a) and 1 (b), any remaining parts of a year in those divisions shall be aggregated and the number of full years represented by this aggregation (when calculated in accordance with subparagraphs (a) to (c)) shall be added to the period of employment mentioned in paragraph 1 (a).

Continuous Employment

4. For the purposes of this Schedule employment shall be taken to be continuous unless terminated by dismissal or by the employee's voluntarily leaving the employment.

5. (1) Where an employee's period of service had been interrupted by any one of the following—

(a) a period of not more than 78 consecutive weeks by reason of sickness,

(b) a period of not more than 26 consecutive weeks by reason of—

(i) lay-off,

(ii) holidays,

(iii) service by the employee in the Defence Forces of the State,

(iv) any cause (other than the voluntary leaving of his employment by the employee) not mentioned in clauses (i) to (iii) but authorised by the employer,

(c) any period during which an employee was absent from work because of a lock-out by his employer or because the employee was participating in a strike, whether such absence occurred before or after the commencement of this Act, continuity of employment shall not be broken by such interruption whether or not notice of termination of the contract of employment has been given.

(2) During the year 1968 subparagraph (1) (b) shall have effect as if “52 consecutive weeks” were substituted for “26 consecutive weeks”.

6. Where a trade or business or an undertaking (whether or not it be an undertaking established by or under an Act of the Oireachtas) was transferred from one person to another, the period of employment of an employee in the trade or business or undertaking at the time of the transfer shall count as a period of employment with the transferee, and the transfer shall not break the continuity of the period of employment.

Reckonable Service

7. For the purposes of this Schedule, a week falling within a period of continuous employment and during which (or during any part of which) the employee concerned either was actually at work, or was absent therefrom by reason of sickness, holidays or any other arrangement with his employer shall, subject to paragraph 8, be allowable as reckonable service.

8. None of the following absences from work shall be allowable as reckonable service—

(a) absence in excess of 52 consecutive weeks by reason of an occupational accident or disease within the meaning of the Social Welfare (Occupational Injuries) Act, 1966,

(b) absence in excess of 26 consecutive weeks by reason of any illness not referred to in subparagraph (a),

(c) absence in excess of 13 weeks in a period of 52 weeks and caused by any reason not referred to in subparagraph (a) or (b) but being an absence authorised by the employer,

(d) absence by reason of lay-off by the employer.

9. Absence from work by reason of a strike in the business or industry in which the employee concerned is employed and which occurred before the commencement of this Act shall be allowable as reckonable service.

10. Absence from work by reason of a strike in the business or industry in which the employee concerned is employed and which occurred after the commencement of this Act shall not be allowable as reckonable service.

11. Absence from work by reason of a lock-out shall be allowable as reckonable service.

12. Absence from work by reason of a strike or lock-out in a business or industry other than that in which the employee concerned is employed shall be allowable as reckonable service if it occurred before the commencement of this Act.

Normal Weekly Remuneration

13. For the purposes of this Schedule, in the case of an employee who is paid wholly by an hourly time rate or by a fixed wage or salary, and in the case of any other employee whose remuneration does not vary in relation to the amount of work done by him, his normal weekly remuneration shall be taken to be his earnings (including any regular bonus or allowance which does not vary in relation to the amount of work done) for his normal weekly working hours as at the date on which he was declared redundant, together with, in the case of an employee who is expected to work overtime regularly, his average weekly overtime earnings as determined in accordance with paragraph 14.

14. For the purpose of paragraph 13 the average weekly overtime earnings shall be determined by ascertaining the total amount of overtime earnings of the employee concerned in the period of 26 weeks which ended 13 weeks before the date on which the employee was declared redundant and dividing that amount by 26.

15. For the purpose of paragraph 14 any week during which the employee concerned did not work shall be disregarded and the most recent week before the 26-week period mentioned in paragraph 14 shall be taken into account instead of the week during which the employee did not work.

16. (i) In the case of an employee who is paid wholly or partly by piece rates, bonuses or commissions (being piecerates, bonuses or commissions related directly to his output) and in the case of any other employee whose remuneration varies in relation to the amount of work done by him, his normal weekly remuneration shall be taken to be the amount as calculated in accordance with subparagraph (ii).

(ii) For the purposes of subparagraph (i) normal weekly remuneration shall be calculated by dividing the remuneration to be taken into account in accordance with subparagraph (iii) by the number of hours ascertained in accordance with subparagraph (vi) and multiplying the resulting hourly rate by the normal weekly working hours of the employee concerned at the date on which he was declared redundant.

(iii) The remuneration to be taken into account for the purposes of subparagraph (ii) shall be the total remuneration paid to the employee concerned for all the hours worked in the period of 26 weeks which ended 13 weeks before the date on which the employee was declared redundant, adjusted in respect of any variations in the rates of pay which became operative during the period of 13 weeks ending on the date on which the employee was declared redundant.

(iv) For the purposes of subparagraph (iii), weeks worked with different employers may be taken into account if the change of employer did not affect the employee's continuous employment as provided by paragraphs 4 to 6.

(v) For the purposes of subparagraph (iii), any week during which the employee did not work shall be disregarded and the most recent week before the 26-week period mentioned in subparagraph (iii) shall be taken into account instead of the week during which the employee did not work.

(vi) The number of hours to be taken into account for the purposes of subparagraph (ii) shall be the total number of hours worked in the period of 26 weeks mentioned in subparagraph (iii).

17. Where an employee receives additional remuneration for working more than a fixed number of hours, that fixed number of hours shall, for the purposes of paragraphs 13 and 16 (ii), be taken to be his normal weekly working hours, unless by his contract of employment he is required to work for more than that fixed number of hours, and in the last mentioned case the higher number of hours required by the contract shall be taken to be his normal weekly working hours.

18. Where in a particular week an employee qualifies for a payment of a bonus, pay allowance or commission which relates to more than the work done in that week, the appropriate portion of the payment may be taken into account under paragraphs 13 and 16 (iii).

19. An employee who is normally employed on a shift cycle and whose remuneration varies in relation to the particular shift he works, and an employee whose remuneration for his normal number of working hours varies in relation to the day of the week or the times of the day or night over which those hours are spread, shall be taken to be each an employee who is paid wholly or partly by piece-rates.

20. For the purposes of this Schedule, in the case of an employee who has no normal working hours, his normal weekly remuneration shall be taken to be the average weekly remuneration, including any bonus, pay allowance or commission, received by the employee concerned over the period of 52 weeks during which he was actually working immediately prior to the date on which he was declared redundant.

21. The date on which an employee is declared redundant shall for the purposes of this Schedule be taken to be the date on which a notice of proposed dismissal was given to the employee in accordance with section 17 or, where a redundancy payment is claimed in accordance with section 12, the first day of the series of weeks of lay-off or short-time referred to in section 7 (3).

22. Where under this Schedule account is to be taken of remuneration or other payments for a period which does not coincide with the periods for which the remuneration or other payments are calculated, part of the remuneration or other payments shall be duly apportioned in such manner as may be just.

23. For the purposes of paragraphs 13 and 16, account shall not be taken of any sums paid to an employee by way of recoupment of expenses necessarily incurred by him in the proper discharge of the duties of his employment.

Miscellaneous

24. In this Schedule—

“overtime premium” means the portion of remuneration paid in excess of ordinary rates and so paid for hours worked in excess of the normal working hours;

“strike” and “lock-out” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by section 6.