Redundancy: The Law, Practice and Procedure
Chaired by Rosemary Mallon, BL and presented in partnership with Eugene F. Collins
This seminar will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the law and practice relating to redundancies. It will examine practical considerations for employers when implementing redundancies whether individual or collective. It will also examine the processes for collective information and consultation, and the applicability of the concept of “fair procedures” in the context of individual redundancies.
Practical advice on selection processes will be provided. This includes safeguarding against unfair selection for redundancy and discriminatory selection for redundancy. The steps in implementing a redundancy process will also be considered. In addition, the basis of legal challenges to redundancies and relevant case law will be reviewed.
The seminar will be of interest to practitioners acting for both employers and employees.
Issues to be considered will include:
- What is a Genuine Redundancy – as defined in the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 – 2014
- Legal Challenges
- Redundancy Processes and Practice
- Lay off and Short Time
- Selection Processes
- Entitlements on a Redundancy
Read more about each of these points below.
Eugene F Collins speakers are:
- Maura Connolly, Partner and Head of the Firm’s Dispute Resolution Law Department. She also leads the Firm’s Employment & Employee Benefits Law Group.
- Kate Field, Associate in Dispute Resolution and is part of the Employment & Employee Benefits Group.
- Edel Flynn, Associate in the Employment & Employee Benefits Group at EFC and advises employers on all aspects of the employment relationship and with respect to equality law, in both contentious and non-contentious matters.
| Type | CPD for Lawyers |
|---|---|
| CPD | 2.5 General CPD hours |
| Duration | 2.5 hours |
| Venue | Online Conference |
| Price | €125 |
What is a Genuine Redundancy – as defined in the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 – 2014
Legal challenges
Redundancy Processes and Practice
Lay off and Short Time
Selection Processes
Entitlements on a Redundancy
Meet the panel
- Is it sufficient if there is an element of redundancy in the dismissal or must it be the primary reason for the dismissal? : Daly v Hanson Industries
- Are there specific grounds on which a redundancy dismissal will be considered unfair?
- Can an employee be replaced by someone at a lower salary or by an employee who is better able to handle an increased workload?
- What is the relevance of the distinction between ability and training?: St Ledger v Frontline Distributors Ireland Limited
- Is it possible for an employer to use grounds specific to a particular employee to make that person redundant?: Moloney v Deacon
- Can an employer make employees redundant on the grounds that the workforce requirements are “expected to cease or diminish” at some point in the future or must there be an imminent requirement that redundancies will take place: Keenan V Gresham Hotel
- Where is the “place of work” in the context of remote working arrangements?
- Rights and remedies in the Workplace Relations Commission
- Can an employee obtain an injunction preventing an employer from terminating his contract by reason of redundancy? Kearney v Byrne Wallace
- Collective Redundancies – the process and practice
- The special rules governing Collective Redundancies
- Does a collective redundancy take effect on the date the notice issues or on the date of expiry of the notice?
- How does collective consultation take place where there is a remote workforce?
- The role of employee representatives – to be appointed or elected from the workforce.
- Exceptional collective redundancies – the penalties.
- Individual Redundancies - Is an employer obliged to enter a consultation process with an employee whose role is at risk of redundancy?
- Treatment of employees on maternity leave or other protected leave periods.
- What are the implications where an employer refuses to consider an appeal by an employee of a decision to make him redundant?
- What is the effect of lay off on the contract of employment and what constitutes short time?
- Does an employer have a right to lay off an employee without pay?
- Can an employer lay off or put an employee on short time indefinitely?
- The interaction with redundancy processes – reactivation of the contract of employment
- Suspension of Section 12 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967 – right to redundancy payment after period of temporary lay-off or short time working.
- Selection for redundancy: What criteria should an employer consider when designing the selection matrix?
- What happens where the selection criteria used by the employer is accepted as valid but there is a failure to notify the employee of the selection process so he was unable to make a constructive contribution to same? Boucher v Irish Productivity Centre
- Can an employee be replaced by someone with superior qualifications?: Daniels V Co. Wexford Community Workshop (New Ross) Limited
- Is an employer obliged to consider alternative positions for those who have been selected for redundancy? O Connor V Power Securities
- The position where a genuine redundancy exists, but an employer fails to consider proposals put forward by an employee in order to avoid losing employment: Sheehan and O Brien V Vintners Association of Ireland
- Is the “last in first out” approach challenge-proof? Is there a risk that it might give rise to an age discrimination claim?
- Are part-time employees, fixed-term employees, agency workers and apprentices entitled to a redundancy payment?
- Is an employee entitled to a redundancy payment if he refuses an offer of alternative work?
- What can an employer do if it can’t pay the statutory redundancy payment?
- What minimum notice period is stipulated in the Redundancy Acts? Can this notice period be waived by payment in lieu of notice? The interaction with contractual notice.
- Is an employee who applies for voluntary redundancy entitled to notice pay? D’Arcy v McLoughlin Painting Contractors Limited
- The conditions which an employee must fulfill in order to be eligible for a redundancy payment
- What constitutes “reckonable service”?
- How is the redundancy payment calculated and what is the basic exemption?
- The calculation of redundancy payment where there has been a period of lay off
- Is there a right to an enhanced redundancy payment based on custom and practice?
- Can an employer vary custom and practice in relation to redundancy pay? At what point does custom and practice become an implied term?
- Severance agreements: is a provision which excludes the possibility of further action by an employee under employment legislation always conclusive: Shortt v Data Packaging Limited
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