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Thursday, February 05, 2009
The Law at Work
Q: I am an apprentice carpenter with a building firm, with just 2 months to go before I finish out my apprenticeship. Unfortunately, due to the downturn in construction work, I am being made redundant. A year ago I was absent from work for several months due to illness. Will I be entitled to redundancy payments? Does my employer have to give me a written reference?
A: To be entitled to receive redundancy payments, any employee being made redundant not just an apprentice must satisfy certain legal eligibility criteria under the law. These are:
• You must be 16 years or older (the upper age limit of 66 no longer applies since 2007);
• You must be in employment that is “insurable” under Social Welfare law (this is a very broad category of different types of employment and covers virtually all types of paid job), and;
• You must have worked continuously for your employer for at least 2 years.
In deciding whether you have been in “continuous employment” for 2 years the law says that certain types of absences from work will not break the continuity of your employment.
These are absences due to such things as taking maternity or parental leave and, as in your case, absence due to illness, holidays and so on. So the fact that you were absent from work for some time a year ago will not affect your eligibility for redundancy payments.
As an apprentice you will, under normal circumstances, qualify for redundancy assuming you meet the criteria. However, there are some exceptions which apply specifically to apprentices and it’s important for you to be aware of these. If you satisfy the criteria then you will be entitled to redundancy payments unless:
• You are doing your apprenticeship through FÁS;
• You are made redundant within 6 months of starting your apprenticeship, or;
• You are made redundant within 1 month after the end of your apprenticeship.
People undergoing full-time training or apprenticeship in FÁS are specifically excluded from entitlement to redundancy payments.
If your employer makes you redundant within the first 6 months of your apprenticeship you would likewise be excluded but since you are almost at the end of several years of apprenticeship this won’t apply to you.
If your employer makes you redundant within one month of the end of your apprenticeship which in your case, with 2 months to go, can still happen then you will not be entitled to redundancy. So it’s very important for you to discuss with your employer the exact date you will be made redundant. For you to qualify for redundancy, this should ideally be before your apprenticeship ends (within the next 2 months) or at some date later than 1 month after the end of your apprenticeship.
If you are made redundant before the end of your apprenticeship then the total period of apprenticeship will be included in calculating your redundancy entitlements.
Your employer is not legally obliged to give you a written reference. But it’s always a good idea to ask for and get one before you leave employment as you may be able to have some influence on what goes into it. Otherwise, an employer may only provide basic information such as when you started and ended the job, what your position was, what duties you carried out and so on.
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