Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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39. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if persons now facing redundancy from their place of employment will have their reduced working weeks forced on them during the Covid-19 pandemic counted as fully paid weeks for the purposes of calculating redundancy pay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56259/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Redundancy Act 1967, as amended, prescribes the minimum redundancy lump sum for qualified employees, generally referred to as 'statutory redundancy'. Statutory redundancy is based on the employee's length of reckonable service and their normal weekly remuneration subject to a ceiling of €600 per week.

The Act does not stipulate the normal weekly remuneration to be used when an employer places an employee on short-time work or reduced hours or salary. However, the general guidance has been that if an employer has placed an employee on short-time work or reduced hours for certain periods of time, the full-time salary should be used for the calculation of statutory redundancy.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, some employees will have been placed on short-time work or reduced hours, or were paid through the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) and the previous Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS). These schemes were introduced as exceptional measures to assist businesses and employees during the emergency Covid-19 situation.

In the event of any dispute regarding the amount of the statutory redundancy lump sum, an employee can refer a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission.