Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 5 is a technical amendment to section 9(3)(a),which provides for a substitute provision for section 7(1)(c) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. It relates to enhanced compensation where an employee takes a successful unfair dismissals case following the issuing of a Labour Court opinion that the dismissal was one of a number of dismissals, including in exceptional collective redundancy. This amendment is necessary because it clarifies that the employer is responsible for payment of any enhanced compensation awarded under the amended section 7(1)(c) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, as is the position under the present Act in regard to compensation awards. The amendment is necessary also to provide that the concluding phrase of section 7(1) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 would apply also to the enhanced compensation provision in the amended section 7(1)(c) of that Act, in the same way as the phrase applies currently to compensation provisions under that Act. This concluding phrase provides that where there is a reference to the word "employer" in the provision of redress for unfair dismissal, these references will be understood to be references to the new owner in a change of ownership case.