Redundancy is one of the most common employment situations in Ireland — and one of the most misunderstood. Many employees accept far less than they are entitled to, or do not realise that the redundancy process itself was unlawful. Here is what you need to know.
Under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967–2014, if you have two or more years of continuous service, you are entitled to statutory redundancy pay of two weeks' gross pay per year of service, plus one additional week. This is a minimum — your contract may entitle you to more.
Critically, a redundancy is only lawful if it is genuine. Your role must actually be disappearing. If the company fills your position with someone else shortly after your departure, or if you were selected unfairly using opaque criteria, the redundancy may be challengeable as an unfair dismissal.
If more than one person could have been selected for redundancy, your employer should have used fair, objective, and documented selection criteria — such as last in first out, skills assessment, or attendance records. Subjective or undisclosed selection criteria, or selection that appears to target a specific person, can render a redundancy unfair.
Tomás had worked in a financial services company in Galway for seven years. When the company announced a restructuring, five roles were identified for redundancy. Tomás was among those selected. He was told the selection had been based on skills assessment.
When Tomás requested the selection matrix, his employer was slow to provide it. When it finally arrived, the scoring appeared to have been applied subjectively — his ratings on criteria like teamwork and communication were significantly lower than colleagues with similar performance reviews.
His solicitor noted that Tomás had submitted a formal grievance about a management decision six months before the redundancy process. The timing, combined with the questionable selection, suggested the redundancy had been used as a mechanism to remove a difficult employee rather than as a genuine restructuring measure.
The case was brought to the WRC as an unfair selection for redundancy.
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