Rights in redundancy/reduced hours

Uncle_moe

Hi, my wife just noticed that her employer (American) has advertised her very role in her office. She then got a meeting invite out of the blue from someone in the states but no info on what the meeting is about.
She's been there 1.5 years and I know typically you need two for redundancy but I'm pretty sure you can't make someone redundant only to hire someone else.
Also, she has no warnings or anything like that, i think she even got a few awards in work. Anyway, just wanted to check and see what rights you have if they try reduce hours. I'd assume again they can't do this only to have someone else come in and take your hours? Any advice welcome on what she should do next.

OMM 0000

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/redundancy/lay_off_short_time_working_and_redundancy.html

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/redundancy/redundancy.html

dennyk

I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions here; they might have a good reason for needing an additional worker in your wife's department. Could be they're expanding the workload and know they'll need an extra set of hands to handle new responsibilities, or there's already too much work as it is, or they need to have a second person around to cover absences and such due to the nature of the role requiring constant availability. I'd just wait and see what's discussed in this meeting; no point in fretting when you have no idea of what's actually going on. Once you do have the details of the situation, you can look into the legal aspects if necessary.

If they do try something shady like hiring this new employee for the same role and then making your wife redundant (instead of the new hire) claiming there's no need for two employees in that role, or if they just try to give her notice of dismissal outright, she may have a reasonable claim for unfair dismissal. Depending on the size and extent of the company's Irish presence, it's possible they may not be entirely familiar with the laws around dismissals here; they might be more used to the employment-at-will system in the US where they can hire and fire as they please at any time for any reason. They could be in for a harsh lesson if they do make that mistake.

Uncle_moe

dennyk wrote: »

I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions here; they might have a good reason for needing an additional worker in your wife's department. Could be they're expanding the workload and know they'll need an extra set of hands to handle new responsibilities, or there's already too much work as it is, or they need to have a second person around to cover absences and such due to the nature of the role requiring constant availability. I'd just wait and see what's discussed in this meeting; no point in fretting when you have no idea of what's actually going on. Once you do have the details of the situation, you can look into the legal aspects if necessary.

If they do try something shady like hiring this new employee for the same role and then making your wife redundant (instead of the new hire) claiming there's no need for two employees in that role, or if they just try to give her notice of dismissal outright, she may have a reasonable claim for unfair dismissal. Depending on the size and extent of the company's Irish presence, it's possible they may not be entirely familiar with the laws around dismissals here; they might be more used to the employment-at-will system in the US where they can hire and fire as they please at any time for any reason. They could be in for a harsh lesson if they do make that mistake.

Thanks for that. I agree it's best to wait and see what happens. I'm guessing it's the typical American approach and not understanding or caring about the laws in Ireland. Similar type thing happened in my last company. Typically American, they didn't follow procedure with redundancies and ended up agreeing to big enough payouts because they had backed themselves into a corner. Most people got between 6-8 months salary plus statutory redundancy. They said it was a good will gesture.