Redundancy Payments Act, 1967

SCHEDULE 3

Amount of Lump Sum

Section 19 .

1. The amount of the lump sum shall be equivalent to the aggregate of the following—

(a) the product of one-half of the employee's normal weekly remuneration and the number of years of continuous employment, with the employer in whose employment he was on the date of dismissal, between the date on which the employee attained the age of sixteen years and the date on which he attained the age of forty-one years, and

(b) the product of the employee's normal weekly remuneration on the date of his dismissal and the number of years of continuous employment, with the employer in whose employment he was on the date of dismissal, after the employee had attained the age of forty-one years.

2. The lump sum shall not exceed an amount equivalent to twenty weeks' normal weekly remuneration.

3. (a) For the purpose of ascertaining, for the purposes of paragraph 1, the number of years of continuous employment, the number of weeks in the period of continuous employment shall be ascertained in accordance with this Schedule and the result shall be divided by 52.

(b) In ascertaining the number of weeks in the period of continuous employment, a week which under this Schedule is not allowable as reckonable service shall be disregarded.

(c) When the division required under subparagraph (a) produces a remainder of 26 or more weeks, this remaining period of 26 (or more) weeks shall be counted as a year of continuous employment but if that division produces a remainder of less than 26 weeks that period shall be disregarded.

(d) When the total number of years of continuous employment as ascertained in accordance with subparagraphs (a) to (c) falls to be divided for the purposes of paragraphs 1 (a) and 1 (b), any remaining parts of a year in those divisions shall be aggregated and the number of full years represented by this aggregation (when calculated in accordance with subparagraphs (a) to (c)) shall be added to the period of employment mentioned in paragraph 1 (a).

Continuous Employment

4. For the purposes of this Schedule employment shall be taken to be continuous unless terminated by dismissal or by the employee's voluntarily leaving the employment.

5. (1) Where an employee's period of service had been interrupted by any one of the following—

(a) a period of not more than 78 consecutive weeks by reason of sickness,

(b) a period of not more than 26 consecutive weeks by reason of—

(i) lay-off,

(ii) holidays,

(iii) service by the employee in the Defence Forces of the State,

(iv) any cause (other than the voluntary leaving of his employment by the employee) not mentioned in clauses (i) to (iii) but authorised by the employer,

(c) any period during which an employee was absent from work because of a lock-out by his employer or because the employee was participating in a strike, whether such absence occurred before or after the commencement of this Act, continuity of employment shall not be broken by such interruption whether or not notice of termination of the contract of employment has been given.

(2) During the year 1968 subparagraph (1) (b) shall have effect as if “52 consecutive weeks” were substituted for “26 consecutive weeks”.

6. Where a trade or business or an undertaking (whether or not it be an undertaking established by or under an Act of the Oireachtas) was transferred from one person to another, the period of employment of an employee in the trade or business or undertaking at the time of the transfer shall count as a period of employment with the transferee, and the transfer shall not break the continuity of the period of employment.

Reckonable Service

7. For the purposes of this Schedule, a week falling within a period of continuous employment and during which (or during any part of which) the employee concerned either was actually at work, or was absent therefrom by reason of sickness, holidays or any other arrangement with his employer shall, subject to paragraph 8, be allowable as reckonable service.

8. None of the following absences from work shall be allowable as reckonable service—

(a) absence in excess of 52 consecutive weeks by reason of an occupational accident or disease within the meaning of the Social Welfare (Occupational Injuries) Act, 1966 ,

(b) absence in excess of 26 consecutive weeks by reason of any illness not referred to in subparagraph (a),

(c) absence in excess of 13 weeks in a period of 52 weeks and caused by any reason not referred to in subparagraph (a) or (b) but being an absence authorised by the employer,

(d) absence by reason of lay-off by the employer.

9. Absence from work by reason of a strike in the business or industry in which the employee concerned is employed and which occurred before the commencement of this Act shall be allowable as reckonable service.

10. Absence from work by reason of a strike in the business or industry in which the employee concerned is employed and which occurred after the commencement of this Act shall not be allowable as reckonable service.

11. Absence from work by reason of a lock-out shall be allowable as reckonable service.

12. Absence from work by reason of a strike or lock-out in a business or industry other than that in which the employee concerned is employed shall be allowable as reckonable service if it occurred before the commencement of this Act.

Normal Weekly Remuneration

13. For the purposes of this Schedule, in the case of an employee who is paid wholly by an hourly time rate or by a fixed wage or salary, and in the case of any other employee whose remuneration does not vary in relation to the amount of work done by him, his normal weekly remuneration shall be taken to be his earnings (including any regular bonus or allowance which does not vary in relation to the amount of work done) for his normal weekly working hours as at the date on which he was declared redundant, together with, in the case of an employee who is expected to work overtime regularly, his average weekly overtime earnings as determined in accordance with paragraph 14.

14. For the purpose of paragraph 13 the average weekly overtime earnings shall be determined by ascertaining the total amount of overtime earnings of the employee concerned in the period of 26 weeks which ended 13 weeks before the date on which the employee was declared redundant and dividing that amount by 26.

15. For the purpose of paragraph 14 any week during which the employee concerned did not work shall be disregarded and the most recent week before the 26-week period mentioned in paragraph 14 shall be taken into account instead of the week during which the employee did not work.

16. (i) In the case of an employee who is paid wholly or partly by piece rates, bonuses or commissions (being piecerates, bonuses or commissions related directly to his output) and in the case of any other employee whose remuneration varies in relation to the amount of work done by him, his normal weekly remuneration shall be taken to be the amount as calculated in accordance with subparagraph (ii).

(ii) For the purposes of subparagraph (i) normal weekly remuneration shall be calculated by dividing the remuneration to be taken into account in accordance with subparagraph (iii) by the number of hours ascertained in accordance with subparagraph (vi) and multiplying the resulting hourly rate by the normal weekly working hours of the employee concerned at the date on which he was declared redundant.

(iii) The remuneration to be taken into account for the purposes of subparagraph (ii) shall be the total remuneration paid to the employee concerned for all the hours worked in the period of 26 weeks which ended 13 weeks before the date on which the employee was declared redundant, adjusted in respect of any variations in the rates of pay which became operative during the period of 13 weeks ending on the date on which the employee was declared redundant.

(iv) For the purposes of subparagraph (iii), weeks worked with different employers may be taken into account if the change of employer did not affect the employee's continuous employment as provided by paragraphs 4 to 6.

(v) For the purposes of subparagraph (iii), any week during which the employee did not work shall be disregarded and the most recent week before the 26-week period mentioned in subparagraph (iii) shall be taken into account instead of the week during which the employee did not work.

(vi) The number of hours to be taken into account for the purposes of subparagraph (ii) shall be the total number of hours worked in the period of 26 weeks mentioned in subparagraph (iii).

17. Where an employee receives additional remuneration for working more than a fixed number of hours, that fixed number of hours shall, for the purposes of paragraphs 13 and 16 (ii), be taken to be his normal weekly working hours, unless by his contract of employment he is required to work for more than that fixed number of hours, and in the last mentioned case the higher number of hours required by the contract shall be taken to be his normal weekly working hours.

18. Where in a particular week an employee qualifies for a payment of a bonus, pay allowance or commission which relates to more than the work done in that week, the appropriate portion of the payment may be taken into account under paragraphs 13 and 16 (iii).

19. An employee who is normally employed on a shift cycle and whose remuneration varies in relation to the particular shift he works, and an employee whose remuneration for his normal number of working hours varies in relation to the day of the week or the times of the day or night over which those hours are spread, shall be taken to be each an employee who is paid wholly or partly by piece-rates.

20. For the purposes of this Schedule, in the case of an employee who has no normal working hours, his normal weekly remuneration shall be taken to be the average weekly remuneration, including any bonus, pay allowance or commission, received by the employee concerned over the period of 52 weeks during which he was actually working immediately prior to the date on which he was declared redundant.

21. The date on which an employee is declared redundant shall for the purposes of this Schedule be taken to be the date on which a notice of proposed dismissal was given to the employee in accordance with section 17 or, where a redundancy payment is claimed in accordance with section 12, the first day of the series of weeks of lay-off or short-time referred to in section 7 (3).

22. Where under this Schedule account is to be taken of remuneration or other payments for a period which does not coincide with the periods for which the remuneration or other payments are calculated, part of the remuneration or other payments shall be duly apportioned in such manner as may be just.

23. For the purposes of paragraphs 13 and 16, account shall not be taken of any sums paid to an employee by way of recoupment of expenses necessarily incurred by him in the proper discharge of the duties of his employment.

Miscellaneous

24. In this Schedule—

“overtime premium” means the portion of remuneration paid in excess of ordinary rates and so paid for hours worked in excess of the normal working hours;

“strike” and “lock-out” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by section 6.