Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill is welcome. It is a short Bill. We support it and we support what it sets out to do. However, there are other issues in this area that also need to be examined. I am sure the Minister of State is aware that many workers face redundancy and a very uncertain future.

It is a difficulty that arose in this particular situation. Section 12A of the Redundancy Payments Act was suspended during the Covid-19 crisis. As a result employees were protected from being made redundant. It also had that knock-on effect at the time they were either off work or whatever that a significant number were concerned that they had lost up to a year of reckonable service in the calculation of any future redundancy payment due to the time they spent on the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP.

The time spent by workers laid off or on short time, such as in receipt of that payment, is calculable as reckonable service in the calculation of redundancy entitlements. That is what this Bill is attempting to do. It is welcome and it is what we want to see happen as soon as possible.

The experience of so many workers, and our colleague referred a few moments ago to the Debenhams workers as an example, is that it is a crisis in their lives. This week we have an issue in County Sligo in Collooney where B. Braun Hospicare Ireland, a company which produces dressings, has decided that it is going to cease production and will be closing down over a period of 18 months. There are 89 workers there, 80 of whom are going to be made redundant. While their company is assuring them that it will be 18 months away, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, the Debenhams workers were told initially that their future was secure and that there was restructuring and not to worry. Very quickly, things change. Things can change for workers and the great fear is that workers are not sufficiently protected in those circumstances. Everything that needs to be done should be done. While this Bill is very specific in what it is doing, and I appreciate and understand that, there needs to be much more done to ensure large companies of this nature, in particular, deal fairly with their workforce who have been loyal to them for so long.

In respect of this company in Sligo, it began in 1984. Decades of service have been given to the local community and economy which has built that company up to being very profitable over that time. Many of the workers feel that they are being cast aside at this stage. It is most unfortunate.

This legislation is looking at a very small piece of this issue but there is so much more that needs to be done in that entire area to ensure that workers' rights are upheld.

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