Redundancy rights after 2.5 years on fixed term contracts?

LegacyUser

Regular poster, going anon for this...

I'm working now for a company for the last 2.5 years, for this period of time it was through a series of fixed term contracts roughly 6-9 months each in duration with no gaps between them where one rolled over to the next.

I work full time hours the same as other employees in the company and am a direct employee of the company rather than working through an agency. I get the same perks, holidays etc as the other permanent staff.

Recently the company annonced a restucturing of the business which would mean about a 30% reduction in the size of the team I work within in the near future, this will mean some fixed term contractors like me and also some permanent staff will be let go. My current contract runs another 2 months and after that should I fall within the 30% being let go it will end. The company hasn't officially discussed any redundancy plan or package with our team (well to me directly anyway) as of yet so I am unaware if an official package exists but I assume it must.

Reading up on workers rights if you are over 2 years in employment with fixed term contracts I may qualify for redundancy but exact definition of 'may' is unclear. Does anyone know if this is the case and if so would I be entitled to whatever redundancy the others may be getting or just statutory or can they say none at all? I will likely be meeting with the HR dept soon and want to know my rights before making an issue of it. The company have always been fair and good to me in the past but don't want them to take advantage if I am entitled to same as the others.

Many thanks.

Batgurl

Im not 100% sure here but I believe that after 24 months of continuous service you have the right to ask for a Permanent contract.

But if you don’t ask, and don’t have one at the time of restructuring, you are just another contract worker. And as such, you won’t be entitled to redundancy.

Diceicle

Found this:

https://www.lkshields.ie/news-insights/publication/fixed-term-workers-non-discrimination-and-compensation-on-the-termination

It is well established that the expiry of a fixed term contract may amount to a dismissal by reason of redundancy for the purpose of the Redundancy Payments Acts. If the expiry of the fixed term contract is attributable to redundancy within the meaning of the Redundancy Payments Acts, a fixed term worker will be entitled to a statutory redundancy payment provided they have the requisite two continuous years of insurable employment.

jimmycrackcorm

They may not choose to renew your contract before the redundancy process kicks in.
However it looks to me like you are effectively a full time permanent worker and should be possibly entitled to redundancy even if there was no process in place