Redundancy Payments Act , 1967

PART I Preliminary and General

1. Short title.

1.—This Act may be cited as the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967.

2. Interpretation.

2.—(1)In this Act—

“the Act of 1952” means the Social Welfare Act, 1952;

F1["Act of 2015" means the Workplace Relations Act 2015;

"adjudication officer" has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2015;]

F2["adopting parent" means an employee who is an adopting parent within the meaning of theAdoptive Leave Act 1995;]

“business” includes a trade, industry, profession or undertaking, or any activity carried on by a person or body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate, or by a public or local authority or a Department of State, and the performance of its functions by a public or local authority or a Department of State;

F3["contract of employment" means—

(a) a contract of service or apprenticeship, and

(b) any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency within the meaning ofthe Employment Agency Act 1971and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is a party to the contract),

whether the contract is express or implied and, if express, whether it is oral or in writing and references to "contract" shall be construed accordingly;]

“date of dismissal”, in relation to an employee, means—

(a)where his contract of employment is terminated by notice given by his employer, the date on which that notice expires,

(b)where his contract of employment is terminated without notice, whether by the employer or by the employee, the date on which the termination takes effect, and

(c)where he is employed under a contract for a fixed term, and that term expires without the contract being renewed, the date on which that term expires,

and cognate phrases shall be construed accordingly;

F1["Director General" means the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission;]

F4["employee" means a person of 16 years and upwards who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment and references, in relation to an employer, to an employee shall be construed as references to an employee employed by that employer and, for the purposes of this Act, a person holding office under, or in the service of, the State (including a civil servant within the meaning ofthe Civil Service Regulation Act 1956) shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the State or Government, as the case may be, and an officer or servant of a local authority, a harbour authority, the Eastern Regional Health Authority, the Northern Area Health Board, the East Coast Area Health Board or the South-Western Area Health Board, a health board orF5[education and training board]shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the authority, health board orF5[education and training board], as the case may be;]

F6["employer" means, in relation to an employee, the person with whom the employee has entered into or for whom the employee works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment, subject to the qualification that the person who under a contract of employment referred to in paragraph (b) of the definition of "contract of employment" is liable to pay the wages of the individual concerned in respect of the work or service concerned shall be deemed to be the individual’s employer;]

F7[…]

“lay-off” has the meaning assigned to it by section 11 (1);

F8["local authority" means a local authority for the purposes of theLocal Government Act 2001(as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014);]

“lump sum” has the meaning assigned to it by section 19;

F9["Minister" means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;]

F10["the National Manpower Service" means the service known by that title and operated under the control of the Minister;]

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

“rebate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 29;

“redundancy payment” has the meaning assigned to it by section 7;

“short-time” has the meaning assigned to it by section 11 (2) F11[or section 11 (3) (as the case may be)];

“sickness” or “illness” includes being incapable of work within the meaning of the Act of 1952;

F12["the Social Insurance Fund" means the Social Insurance Fund established undersection 39of theSocial Welfare Act, 1952, and continued in being undersection 122of theSocial Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981;]

“special redundancy scheme” has the meaning assigned to it by section 47;

“the Tribunal” has the meaning assigned to it by section 39 (1);

“week”, in relation to an employee whose remuneration is calculated weekly by a week ending on a day other than Saturday, means a week ending on that other day and, in relation to any other employee, means a week ending on Saturday, and “weekly” shall be construed accordingly;

“weekly payment” has the meaning assigned to it by section 30.

(2)In this Act a reference to a Part, section or schedule is to a Part or section of, or schedule to, this Act unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended.

(3)In this Act a reference to a subsection, paragraph, sub-paragraph or other division is to the subsection, paragraph, sub-paragraph or other division of the provision (including a schedule) in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to another provision is intended.

(4)For the purposes of the operation of this Act in relation to an employee whose remuneration is payable to him by a person other than his employer, reference in this Act to an employer shall be construed as reference to the person by whom the remuneration is payable.

3. Commencement.

3.—This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister appoints by order.

4. Classes of persons to which this Act applies.

4.—F13[(1) Subject to this section and to section 47, this Act applies to—

(a) employees employed in employment which is insurable for all benefits under theSocial Welfare Consolidation Act 2005,

(b) employees who were so employed in such employment in the period of four years ending on the date of termination of employment, and

(c) employees who have attained the age of 66 years and are in employment that would be insurable for all benefits under theSocial Welfare Consolidation Act 2005but for—

(i) their attainment of that age, or

(ii) the fact that the employment concerned is excepted employment by reason of paragraph 2, 4 or 5 of Part 2 of Schedule 1 to that Act.]

F14[(2) This Act shall apply to an employee employed in employment which would be insurable for all benefits underthe Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 1993but for the fact that the employment concerned is an excepted employment by virtue of paragraph 2, 4 or 5 of Part II of the First Schedule to that Act.]

(3)(a)For the purpose of the application of this Act to an employee who is employed in a private household this Act (other than section 20) shall apply as if the household were a business and the maintenance of the household were the carrying on of that business by the employer.

(b)This Act shall not apply to any person in respect of employment where the employer is the father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, stepson, stepdaughter, brother, sister, halfbrother or halfsister of the employee, where the employee is a member of the employer’s household and the employment is related to a private dwelling house or a farm in or on which both the employer and the employee reside.

F15[(c)In deducing any relationship for the purposes of paragraph (b)—

(i)a person adopted under the Adoption Acts, 1952 and 1964, shall be considered the legitimate offspring of the adopter or adopters;

(ii)subject to clause (i) of this paragraph, an illegitimate person shall be considered the legitimate offspring of his mother and reputed father;

(iii)a personin loco parentisto another shall be considered the parent of that other.]

(4)The Minister may by order declare that this Act shall not apply to a class or classes of persons specified in the order and from the commencement of the order this Act shall not apply to that class or those classes.

(5)Notwithstanding subsection (2), the Minister may by order declare that this Act shall apply to a specified class of worker and from the commencement of the order this Act shall apply to that class.

(6)The Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this section.

5. Laying of regulations and certain draft orders before Houses of Oireachtas.

5.—(1)Whenever an order is proposed to be made under section 4 (4), 4 (5), 4 (6), 19 (3), F16[…] 30 (3) or 47 F17[orSection 17of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1971], a draft of the proposed order shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.

(2)Every regulation made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

PART II Redundancy Payment

6. Definitions for Part II.

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. General right to redundancy payment.

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 F18[four 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 F19[for one or more reasons not related to the employee concerned] 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

F20[(b)the fact that the requirements of that business 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, or

(c)the fact that his employer has decided to carry on the business with fewer or no employees, whether by requiring the work for which the employee had been employed (or had been doing before his dismissal) to be done by other employees or otherwise, or

(d)the fact that his employer has decided that the work for which the employee had been employed (or had been doing before his dismissal) should henceforward be done in a different manner for which the employee is not sufficiently qualified or trained, or

(e)the fact that his employer has decided that the work for which the employee had been employed (or had been doing before his dismissal) should henceforward be done by a person who is also capable of doing other work for which the employee is not sufficiently qualified or trained,]

F21[(2A) For the purposes of subsection (1), an employee who is dismissed shall be taken not to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if—

(a) the dismissal is one of a number of dismissals that, together, constitute collective redundancies as defined insection 6of theProtection of Employment Act 1977,

(b) the dismissals concerned were effected on a compulsory basis,

(c) the dismissed employees were, or are to be, replaced, at the same location or elsewhere in the State, (except where the employer has an existing operation with established terms and conditions) by—

(i) other persons who are, or are to be, directly employed by the employer, or

(ii) other persons whose services are, or are to be, provided to that employer in pursuance of other arrangements,

(d) those other persons perform, or are to perform, essentially the same functions as the dismissed employees, and

(e) the terms and conditions of employment of those other persons are, or are to be, materially inferior to those of the dismissed employees.]

(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.

F22[(4A)In ascertaining, for the purposes of subsection (2) (c), whether an employer has decided to carry on a business with fewer or no employees, account shall not be taken of the following members of the employer‘s family—

father, mother, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, adopted child, grandson, granddaughter, stepson, stepdaughter, brother, sister, half brother, half sister.]

(5)In this section requisite period means a period of F23[104 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. Qualification of general right under section 7.

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 F24[section 12] 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. Dismissal by employer.

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

F25[(b) where, under the contract under which the employee is employed by the employer the employee is employed for a fixed term or for a specified purpose (being a purpose of such a kind that the duration of the contract was limited but was, at the time of its making, incapable of precise ascertainment), that term expires or that purpose ceases without being renewed under the same or similar contract, or]

(c)the employee terminates the contract under which he is employed by the employer F26[…] 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,