Taoiseach confirms to Labour that PUP will count towards redundancy rights

01 June 2021
  • Redundancy rights suspended until end of September.
  • Taoiseach says no workers will lose out.

Questioning the Taoiseach in the Dáil today on whether the time a worker spent on the PUP will count towards their redundancy entitlements, the Taoiseach confirmed a bespoke scheme is being worked on to ensure a worker gets their entitlements and he said ‘no workers will lose out’.

Deputy Kelly said:

“Today in the Dáil I asked the Taoiseach if workers on the PUP will have redundancy entitlements for their time on that payment, and he confirmed to me that a scheme is being developed, and when pushed by myself on whether it will specifically cover PUP service he said that due to the unique situation of the pandemic, that to ensure that workers get their entitlements and are not disadvantaged, and that employers aren’t either that there will be a bespoke approach. He said workers have rights that have to be affirmed and that no worker would lose out.

“For a long period of time we haven’t been able to get clarity on PUP service and redundancy, and this is the first time it has been confirmed that the government was working on such a plan.

“I raised this back in March with the Tánaiste asking for a commitment that workers who are made redundant will not lose out because of time spent on the PUP. He described it as a complex issue but failed to provide any certainty that workers entitlements will be protected.

“Hundreds of thousands of workers could lose out on payments because time spent on the PUP may not count when calculating entitlements.

“Workers are entitled to two weeks of pay for every year of service when made redundant and due to the length of the crisis now they are at risk of seriously losing out if they’ve been on PUP which was originally designed as a short term scheme.

“Normally after four weeks of layoff a worker has the right to demand a return to work or seek redundancy. That has been suspended.

“The Taoiseach also confirmed that the current suspension of redundancy rights will remain in place until the end of September and will not be extended beyond September.”

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