# Employer now only wants to Pay Statutory



## Coll (11 Sep 2010)

I am working with a company for the past 10 years, over the past two years they have being making people redundant, They have being giving every one up to now good packages on top of their Statutory redundancy. Now their is talk that they are only going to give people their Statutory requirements. Can they do this?


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## pixiebean22 (11 Sep 2010)

Open to correction (my experience with redundancy may have just been the way the company I worked for was doing it) but I think they have to offer everyone the same package.


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## PaddyBloggit (12 Sep 2010)

Statutory is what they are required to give .... anything over and above that is up to them.

Your union should try to negotiate better terms.


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## Coll (12 Sep 2010)

PaddyBloggit said:


> Statutory is what they are required to give .... anything over and above that is up to them.
> 
> Your union should try to negotiate better terms.



I know that anything over and above statutory is up to them, But can they just change the goal posts and just give Statutory?


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## PaddyBloggit (12 Sep 2010)

yup ..... once they pay statutory the rest is up to them.


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Sep 2010)

I don't think it's that simple. 

A company sets a precedent and they would have to have good reasons for departing from it. The Labour Court has ordered some companies to pay more than statutory. 

I would say that they could claim "inability to pay".


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## ajapale (12 Sep 2010)

Brendan Burgess said:


> The Labour Court has ordered some companies to pay more than statutory.



Do you have any links to this?

As a general, management will ensure that each successive redundancy  round will be on slightly worse terms than previous rounds. This  provides an incentive to early leavers and a disincentive to workers  waiting to see if the next round would be on better terms.

I have seen cases where the last redundancy coincided with the closing of the firm and only statutory was offered.


OP, are you a member of a trade union? Was the terms of the redundancy negotiated with them?


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Sep 2010)

Thanks to Google...

Court improves redundancy deals for newspapers: Independent.ie


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## ajapale (12 Sep 2010)

Brendan, thanks for the link.

Coll, are these voluntary or compulsory redundancies? Is the company having trading difficulties? 

aj


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## Coll (13 Sep 2010)

ajapale said:


> Brendan, thanks for the link.
> 
> Coll, are these voluntary or compulsory redundancies? Is the company having trading difficulties?
> 
> aj



It's a Construction company! Do I need to say anything more! to date it all been compulsory when different construction jobs  come to an end. Also some of the management have asked for redundancy and were given good packages. But the big talk is their running out of money to pay out good packages.


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## jpd (13 Sep 2010)

my experience over many years and juristrictions is that once a company gets into difficulties and starts laying people off, those you go first get the best deal and those that go last get the worst deal.

In some cases, it may be possible to get mopre through the courts, but in general it's because the management have too optimistic a view at first and believe that the turnaround is coming. As time goes by, it doesn't and their ability to pay diminishes with each passing layoff.


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