Liquidator & statutory redundancy

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cinders55

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I have a problem with the inaction of a Liquidator and I'm getting really stressed over it. The company I worked for went into Voluntary Liquidation a year ago, I spent 11 years with them and they were good people but there were no funds for redundancy payments and unpaid wages etc., at the end. The various forms for application to the Social Insurance Fund were completed and as we thought, submitted to the Department in question. We waited for many months, knowing that there was quite a backlog these days, but nothing ever happened. Then we started calling NERA for updates on the status of our claims to be repeatedly told that we weren't even on their system. At first we were advised to contact the Liquidator as he would have submitted the forms but he's difficult to contact and very busy. To make a long story short, it seems that he "overlooked" sending them in and as far as we can make out, they went in sometime in early June and he assures us that he has been speaking with officials in the Department and everything is fine.

In the meantime, NERA advised us to complete Form T1-A and waste no more time submitting the form to The Employment Appeals Tribunal as they had to be in before the 1st anniversary of the liquidation date. We all did this but one of my former colleagues checked with NERA last week and he's still not on their system. The liquidator promised me some weeks back that he would get written confirmation from his contact in the Department that our applications have been received, are being processed and an approximate date for payment. Again, he failed to contact me, the full year has now passed and we're none the wiser. Being none the wiser is one thing but being financially up against the wall is quite another and I, for one, am really hurting now.

Has anyone experienced this kind of thing before? I thought that employee's rights mattered in this kind of situation but they don't seem to matter for us. I feel very strongly about the neglectful behaviour of the Liquidator and am seriously considering making a complaint against him with the ODCE, I have already downloaded and partially completed the form but as I don't get a thrill out of causing trouble for anyone, I've been holding back. Should I go ahead and send it in, I informed him back in the Spring that I would do so if he didn't resolve matters but he didn't even acknowledge my letter, or should I contact the Tribunal or "what"? I'd be grateful for any advice - insight - previous experience ........ anything.
Many thanks.
 
Update which may help someone else.

114 views and not a "dickey-bird" out of anyone. Perhaps I'm too impatient or maybe it was something I said. Ah well, thanks anyway. At the end of the day, we're pretty much on our own, at least that's what I find.

For anyone who needs to know, I rang NERA this morning to try to find out SOMETHING, ANYTHING........to hear that as and from today, 6th October, NERA no longer take calls regarding the status of redundancy claims. This is now being handled by The Redundancy Payments Section and their number is 1890 800 699. Hope you have better luck than I did.........my call was transferred to a ringing tone which continued until it transferred into an engaged tone. Anyone for a long walk off a short pier?
 
What forms did the liquidator claim he sent in?

If the liquidator has claimed that he sent in a Form RP50 then you would have had to have signed it first to acknowledge that you haven't actually received a redundancy payment.

Have a look here for some assistance

[broken link removed]

You can complete the Form RP50 yourself if you want and at this stage I would be making a visit to the liquidator's office and not leaving until you get the forms signed by him acknowledging that no redundancy has been paid
 
I'm afraid you are at their mercy, if you can find out what the current waiting time for payment of redundance payments add that number of months to early June, it used to be on the NERA website. In my case our redundancy was in 2009 and it was a frustrating wait as they were slow in forwarding forms but not as bad as your case. But the one warning I would have is that it became apparant when I applied for dental cover this year they had not submitted R35's for us either, but it was submitted during the summer and PRSI for that year have now been recorded.
 
Thank you both for your replies, I appreciate the trouble you took.

The RP50s were completed and signed and given to the Liquidator. That was early November 2010. If he would return a call, it would be easier to keep track but he doesn't and when he's cornered, he makes promises that he doesn't keep. You'd think it was a case of paying us himself but it doesn't cost him ANYTHING. I know we were a small family company and there were only 5 of us when it all went south but surely we still (and I hate the word "entitled") had a right to expect the same fair treatment as other workers? Like everybody else, I have lots of other problems but this mess makes everything else insurmountable and I'm tired of being sh@t upon. I'm going to look into the website that DB74 linked for me and tomorrow I'm going to start turning into a squeaky wheel for a change. I registered my claim to The Employment Appeals Tribunal so I'm going to write to them tomorrow, along with The Redundancy Payments Section and the Insolvency Section AND the Liquidator. If I don't get a satisfactory update by this time next week, I'll be completing that form and annoying the ODCE as well. I know that times are hard for all these Departments but I crammed 20 years into those years that I worked for the company and because of the workload, I didn't take a holiday in all that time, holidays and bank holiday week ends coincided with accounting month ends and I drove myself into the ground for the sake of the business. You don't have to tell me what a plonker I am, I already know. Thanks again.
 
Delays in liquidators submitting the necessary forms are unfortunately common enough. You've kept yourself right by submitting your claim to EAT. Nothing more that you can do on that front.

Also, you say this was a family business. Was this YOUR family's business. If so, then there may be a complicating factor of whether any nominal employees were really Class A employees at all or whether they should be considered as being self employed. This needs to be determined first, and case may possibly be referred to the Scope section to see if a genuine employment relationship exists and whether any redundancy payments are due at all. What is your family relationship with the directors/shareholders of the company? Could this issue be responsible for some of the delay?
 
Thanks for the information, it's appreciated. No, it was a family business but not my family, I was just an employee so there are no complications like that.
 
A letter to the odce will not do much.no disrespect to the office but they are simply going to forward your complaint to whatever accountants body supervises the liqiodator in question.

Therefore if the matter is still unresolved I would suggest writting a letter to the liquidator giving him say seven days to respond to you and syate that a failure to respond will leabe you with no option but to bring the matters to the attention of the accountancy body.


Best of luck
 
Jack2009, thank you for your advice and sorry for the delay in acknowledging it. In my original post I mentioned the complaint form from the odce and have spent some time on their site studying the procedure and while I would not hold my breath waiting for a result, the complaints procedure is theirs and therefore should work, otherwise what's the point? I have been told that actually submitting the formal complaint would cause him a great deal of trouble and so I have been reluctant to go to that point of no return but frankly, he doesn't appear to give a hoot about us. Believe it or not, the letter I wrote to him last spring was a 7 day letter sent by fax and registered post and he hasn't acknowledged it yet! I'm not giving up but I find myself humming "Cows with Guns" more and more often these days!!!

Thanks for the good wishes and the advice, I will post with an update in case it may be of use to someone else but I doubt it will be any time soon!
 
I previously said that I would update if anything developed so that's why I'm back. The redundancy payments arrived mid November but the unpaid wages problem persisted until this month. Jack 2009 was right, reading up on the "accountancy body" website led to their complaints procedure and how to proceed with an initial letter to the "offender" in question. Once that letter hit his desk, it was like he'd received a hand grenade with a loose pin. He came up with a solution, pdq, and all are now satisfied. Except perhaps for him. Just thought it might help to know.
 
i have a problem regarding redundacy and liqudation.i wored in the shop 3 years and in april we were told we wer closing and we are getting redundancy and all monies owed to us.2months later the other stores had actualy went into liqudation.so we just closed and the rest wer liqudated.the meeting with the liqudatorwas 2 days ago.what do we do now.will we get payment?how do we get on to the liqudator there is no info on the net.we have all filled out complaint forms but we just want our money :(
 
redundant

i have a problem regarding redundacy and liqudation.i wored in the shop 3 years and in april we were told we wer closing and we are getting redundancy and all monies owed to us.2months later the other stores had actualy went into liqudation.so we just closed and the rest wer liqudated.the meeting with the liqudatorwas 2 days ago.what do we do now.will we get payment?how do we get on to the liqudator there is no info on the net.we have all filled out complaint forms but we just want our money
 
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