AQW 4886/17-22

Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 16/06/2020
Answered On Date: 08/07/2020
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy, pursuant to AQW 4386/17-22, whether she will introduce specific regulations to ensure redundancy is calculated based on regular contractual pay, rather than Job Retention Scheme pay.

Answer:

Due to the complexity in calculating Redundancy Payments, it is theoretically possible for an employer to use furlough pay as part of this equation. However, I am firmly of the view that employers should assess redundancy pay using employees’ weekly pay prior to furlough as this is how they would be paid contractually.

There are no specific regulations to enforce this at present. However, I would assure you that this is a situation which I will keep under review and, with that in mind, if you become aware of cases where employers are basing redundancy payments on furloughed rather than normal pay, please bring them to my or my officials’ attention.

Furthermore, I have instructed the Northern Ireland Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) to calculate the redundancy and insolvency payments for which it is responsible based on the relevant weekly wage period prior to initiation of the Job Retention Scheme.

I would not expect an employer to take advantage of the Job Retention Scheme, which has brought benefit to employers and employees alike, to make someone redundant on less favourable terms than they would otherwise have received. Employers should note that any redundancy payment may be subject to determination by an Industrial Tribunal.

If an employer decides to only pay a furlough amount during a period of notice and subsequently becomes insolvent, RPS will consider a manual calculation of earnings covering this time to give the employee the difference between their actual pay and their furloughed pay.