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According to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, this decision was taken in the interests of society as a whole in order to avoid triggering further job losses. It will also bring the end date of the suspension in line with the date that the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme is due to end.
The extension is good news for employers and means that organisations will not be faced with claims by employees on lay off for statutory redundancy payments (for now).
However, this does not affect an employer's right to implement redundancies in the usual way or the obligation to pay any applicable statutory redundancy in such situations. It is only relevant to claims by employees on lay off.
Please see our Recent Article for further details on the rules that normally apply following a period of lay-off or short time and the changes introduced by the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act, 2020.
Written by Maeve Griffin
