This is an appeal brought by the Employer of a decision by the Adjudication Officer under the terms of the Redundancy Payments Acts. The Complainant brought a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission for payment of statutory redundancy in October 2018. The Adjudication Officer upheld the claim and decided that the Complainant was entitled to statutory redundancy of €7,648.
In the appeal, The Respondent argued that the Complainant was made aware of the store’s financial difficulties and was assured that all remaining staff would retain their positions. She was told by the Respondent that she would be re-instated as soon as the new owner had signed the lease contract. In July 2018, the Complainant advised the Respondent that she could not continue to work for him for personal reasons. The Respondent informed the Court that the Complainant’s contract made provision for lay-off. While it is acknowledged that no written notice of a lay-off was provided, verbal notification was given. The Respondent argued that the Complainant was not entitled to a redundancy payment because she was offered a job by the new owner.
The Complainant contended that she never received any notice whatsoever in respect of any purported lay-off period and the Respondent failed to produce any evidence of same. There was no notice given to the Complainant of a transfer of undertakings and the purported transfer took place approximately 8 months following the termination of the Complainant’s contract.
The Court noted that there was not an immediate transfer of undertakings. As a consequence, the Complainant ceased to be employed. From that time until the business re-opened in July 2018, there were only two possibilities as to the status of the Complainant. Either she was laid off or her role had been made redundant. In the absence of any proof that the required notice of lay-off had been given to her, the Court concluded that the Complainant’s role had been made redundant, within the meaning of the Redundancy Payments Acts.
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2020/august/rpd203.html
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