Can anyone recommend a good employment solicitor or advise on this please

oholly121 · 07-07-2020 05:04PM #1

Hi All
Was hoping to get some advice and direction on this please
I work for a large global multinational for close to 6 years, I have an unblemished work record and have had 3 promotions in 5 years,

This company have offices all over the world , lately there has been talk of closing most of the European bases and using their flagship office in Madrid.

So yesterday I had the dreaded call with HR on this, Well, in fact, my manager set up a call with me and then all of a sudden senior management just joined the call I was not prepared for that, they stated that they are closing the Dublin office in the next 3 months and I was being made redundant

I’m not sure if this applies to me or if this is legal or can be done based on the below:
• I actually work remotely from home already and obviously have done more extensively for the past 4 months – So I don’t feel I need and office ?
• I am the only one in my company they have employed to work the Turkish and Israeli market I’m fluent in Hebrew and Turkish so I’m the only one who deals with these clients.

They offered me a relocation to the Madrid office but that’s just not feasible for me

Can a company declare radiancy when you very rarely use an office ?
What would you recommend any advise is helpful

Thanks

ED E · 07-07-2020 05:09PM

oholly121 wrote: »

Hi All
Was hoping to get some advice and direction on this please

Good work reading the stickies, this is prohibited on boards.

hullaballoo · 07-07-2020 05:12PM

ED E wrote: »

Good work reading the stickies, this is prohibited on boards.

I don't think this is a necessary comment.

While there is a rule against legal advice, the contributors to this forum regularly provide helpful information in relation to how queries like this can be progressed.

oholly121 · 07-07-2020 05:19PM

hullaballoo wrote: »

I don't think this is a necessary comment.

While there is a rule against legal advice, the contributors to this forum regularly provide helpful information in relation to how queries like this can be progressed.

I was just looking for general advise or direction on this particular situation

Or if anyone has been in similar situation and how they handled it?

Samuel T. Cogley · 07-07-2020 05:23PM

Purely practical advice / thoughts.

Keeping just one employee, even if they are rarely in the office is going to involve some sort of cost and paperwork in Ireland. Have you suggested a relocation in principle, i.e. Spanish employment contract, Spanish base, Spanish HR etc. but continue remote working in Ireland with, say, a day in the office a month in Madrid?

oholly121 · 07-07-2020 05:27PM

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Purely practical advice / thoughts.

Keeping just one employee, even if they are rarely in the office is going to involve some sort of cost and paperwork in Ireland. Have you suggested a relocation in principle, i.e. Spanish employment contract, Spanish base, Spanish HR etc. but continue remote working in Ireland with, say, a day in the office a month in Madrid?

I actually did ask for similar to this but they requested complete relocation which I cannot do at present!

Samuel T. Cogley · 07-07-2020 05:35PM

Not sure I'd be going to a solicitor and paying for a full consultation initially on this one, but you might get five minutes on the phone to be at least told if there is any avenue that can be explored. I'd just ring around the ones a google search would yield.

Mrs OBumble · 07-07-2020 05:44PM

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Purely practical advice / thoughts.

Keeping just one employee, even if they are rarely in the office is going to involve some sort of cost and paperwork in Ireland. Have you suggested a relocation in principle, i.e. Spanish employment contract, Spanish base, Spanish HR etc. but continue remote working in Ireland with, say, a day in the office a month in Madrid?

If s/he's tax resident in Ireland and an employee, then the company needs to operate at least a tax presence here. So I can see why they'd say no.

Would the Spanixh office consider having you as a contractor?

tayto lover · 07-07-2020 06:07PM

The best solicitor in that field is /mod deletion/

3DataModem · 09-07-2020 12:06PM

Couple of things.

1. Closing an office you are attached to IS grounds for your redundancy even if you never go there. I have been through this process. The reasons are not just cost; your work might incur a corporation tax liability for the company by the fact of your physical presence in Ireland (especially if you are making decisions) but if you are "making things" (like software) then you there are other issues like VAT.

2. It is possible for an EU company to employ Irish staff on PAYE. They just need to apply for a company number in order to process payroll, but they don't actually need to have an entity here. I worked for a foreign company for a year and they did exactly this.

3DataModem · 09-07-2020 12:10PM

Here is the form my company used to register for income tax etc in Ireland:
https://www.revenue.ie/en/self-assessment-and-self-employment/documents/form-tr2-non-resident.pdf

The other time I was working for a company and my presence in Ireland as an employee after they closed the Irish office would have created a tax and liability issue, so they were going to switch me to a consultancy arrangement via their UK office. This was not ideal for them or for me, but was the only way that didn't cause a problem. In the end I left before this happened, but my replacement also worked in Ireland so signed the consultancy contract with the UK business.

Can anyone recommend a good employment solicitor or advise on this please

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