am I entitled to redundancy payment?

the_croo · 19-01-2011 10:29AM #1

Sooo.
In April 2007 I started working for a UK-based company, they opened a sales office here in Ireland, I signed a permanent full time contract and I was working in the Irish office, my payroll was, however initially done through the UK- I paid my taxes etc in the UK. In January 2008 the company registered the branch in Ireland and from then on my payroll was done from Ireland, until present. I have not signed or renewed my contract, it kept on from the 2007 one, so i have been working for the same company for nearly 4 years now. I have been told few days ago that our office here will close by end of March. My position is no longer required. I will be made redundant. I have been offered a new job with the same company, however I would have to move to England or Germany for it. There will be one "Irish" job left but it's a sales rep job, which is not suitable for me (and was not offered to me anyways). So I am wondering

a) am I entitled to redundancy pay?

b) if yes, how will it be calculated? (seeing that I paid my taxes in UK for the first months and then in Ireland rest of the time but for the entire duration of the contract I have been resident in Ireland. There is a big difference between the redundancy payment in the UK and Ireland. I read somewhere that even if I started "abroad" but moved to Ireland it should still all be calculated by the Irish rules...

I hope someone here will be able to help me as even though I have not been handed in the notice yet I would like to know my rights before this happens.
Many thanks in advance.

murphym7 · 19-01-2011 11:12AM

You will definetly be entitled to redundancy - I am however unclear as to what portion of your service is eligable. I would be inclined to think that the first few months would be included somehow (we are all europeans after all!)

Very interested to see how it turns out.

katseye · 19-01-2011 04:46PM

As murphym stated you should absolutely be entiled to redundancy if you have been a full time perm member of staff for the past 4 years.

So there are two parts to look at and wonder about here.

The ex-gratia part if they are paying it should be in full as you have no break in your contract from the time you started working with this company (i assume from reading your post) and it doesn't matter where you worked as it will be based on x weeks per year of service. It will applied in line with the local policy which may take an average earnings per week or current earning per week. A portion of this may actually be exempt from Irish tax as it will be based on earnings from outside Ireland.

So the statutory part. You say it was Jan 2008 your payroll was started in Ireland hence you started paying Irish tax. That means you have at least two years of service (104 wks) completed and you are indeed entitled and eligible to receive it.

Now the April 2007 to Jan 2008 part is what you are really wondering about - and whether or not this is to be included under the statutory redundancy. I think the full pro-rata'd length of your service will be covered by this.

Lastly - and this bit is important - if you have been offered a job with the same company and assuming it will be the case that you continue your "service" (here or abroad) then you will likely NOT receive any redundancy as you will be transferring internally and therefore not actually be let go!
It would be very unusual for a company to pay you a shed load of money to leave only to rehire you... you'd want to check that out with them!

the_croo · 19-01-2011 05:20PM

thanks very much for your comments. Yeah I have been offered the "alternative" but I am not prepared to move out of Ireland. I take it, the "alternative" is not really a "reasonable offer" and therefore turning it down does not affect my elegibility for redundancy payment.

I have spoken to an advisor at NERA and been told that even if i started abroads, but eventually ended up in Ireland the entire contract should be calculated the Irish way (wooohooo). Another question comes up: my salary consisted of basic salary plus bonuses, which changed every month- I am wondering if the average weekly pay is simple addition of all my gross wages divided by total amount of weeks I worked for or if the bonuses do not count (only basic gross salary) I am 100% sure the company will try anything to get out with paying as little as possible...(how I wish I kept ALL my payslips neatly and nicely in my drawer....%r*&d@*!)

katseye · 19-01-2011 05:36PM

Bonuses will count. They will calculate the gross 36 month average weekly earnings using your P60s for the past three years which detail the total salary you earned - that includes all O/T, bonuses, on-call and other taxable incomes etc.

Definately the company should provide you with access to experts in this area as they most likely will have some external company like mercer (or whoever looks after your life assurance/pension etc) deal with this.

wmpdd3 · 19-01-2011 11:16PM

http://www.deti.ie/employment/redundancy/calculator.htm

https://redundancy.entemp.ie/rpsportal/initialiseRedundancyCalculatorAction.do?locale=en

we;l worth having a statuary figure in your head in case they offer you a lump some.

the_croo · 21-01-2011 10:31AM

thanks everyone for all your comments. I'll keep you posted.

am I entitled to redundancy payment?

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