# Accepting redundancy payment - can one ever be re-hired by this same company?



## berlininvest (5 Dec 2009)

A close relative have been told (from a fairly non-expert source!) that, 

as she has been made redundant, 

she should NOT accept a redundancy payment, 

as it would preclude her from ever working for that company again in the future, if things should pick up.

This sounds frankly implausible to me, but (aside from the fact that she would not want to waive the payment on the off chance of re-hire) is there any truth in it?


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## Nutso (5 Dec 2009)

I checked this with DETE a few months ago as we were letting people go (construction) but there was a possiblity of a job coming up a couple of months down the line.  DETE told me that as long as a period of more than 1 month had elapsed we would be free to re-employ these people.  This would be a completely new employment contract and so could have different terms & conditions, wages etc.


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## berlininvest (6 Dec 2009)

Many thanks.

On further research I think that there would be tax implications for the company if they fired and rehired more or less immediately.  That would not be the case here, so I think she has no worries in this regard.


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## Nesta (6 Dec 2009)

The Co. i work for (State owned) brought out a voluntary redundancy package a few years ago of which a few workers accepted , since then some have come back on a contract basis where by they wouldnt get all the benefits of the permenant staff but still getting paid by the the co. which made them redundant.


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## qwerty08 (6 Dec 2009)

The issue here is not her ability to rejoin the company as there would be no legal basis preventing this. However, the risk she runs is with Revenue...if she was to return to the company within a short timeframe as an *employee* Revenue may look through the redundancy agreement and tax the payment in the normal way i.e. at 20% or 41%. Under this scenario she would lose the benefit of the 3 redundancy payment tax exemptions available. 

She could avoid this if she was return to the company by contracting her services to the company.


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## Mpsox (7 Dec 2009)

I know someone who has, over 25 years, taken 2 redudancy packages from her company abd still works for them. Important to note however that where your relative to return to work for her old employer, her service would have been broken and she would not necessarily be on the same T&Cs.


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