LCR22608

1.Redundancy Terms

BACKGROUND:

2.This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of Conciliation Conferences under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 26 April 2022 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. A Labour Court hearing took place on 1 June 2022.

UNION’S ARGUMENTS:

3. 1. The Union agreed redundancy terms with the Company in 2004 – 6.5 weeks per year of service, inclusive of statutory provisions. There is no maximum ‘cap’ applicable.

2. The Company’s proposal to introduce lower terms of redundancy than the agreed terms is unacceptable to the Union’s members

EMPLOYER'S ARGUMENTS:

4. 1. The Company is no longer in a position to pay the historical redundancy terms that were agreed in 2004

2. The Company is seeking to update their redundancy terms in line with industry norms and to future fit the business

RECOMMENDATION:

The Court recommends that the parties should agree terms for a redundancy scheme, as follows;

1. Payments to be 2 weeks’ statutory plus 3 weeks’ ex-gratia or 5 weeks ex-gratia, inclusive of statutory, whichever is the greater.

2. A ‘cap’ of 104 weeks to apply to the above calculations.

3. An additional lump sum of 26 weeks’ salary to be paid to workers who are affected by the application of the ‘cap’.

4. All calculations to continue to be made in accordance with the formulae in the Employer’s letter to the Union on 31 March 2004.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Tom Geraghty
OC	______________________
10 June 2022	Deputy Chairman