Making a staff member redundant

Thank you Mcaul ! I took over the business and turned it round but this particular staff member was working here when I took it on at the same salary she is on now... which is very high for her position.. mistake of previous owner.. I probably would not have been able to deal with it back then as she was at that stage with the company 2 years .. but now we're in recession and her salary is the only one I can justify reducing.. and yes I have reduced my own!
And Jaybird its ok I didn't feel attacked!! My post did seem that way.. I just didn't want to put too much info in it ..

If you havent done it before, take some advice before dealing with the situation

Regardless of any advice, remember one thing -

The employer is always the bad guy -no matter whether a large corporation giving jobs to hundreds of people, or a struggling young person like OP.

An employee can get away with almost anything and if you sack him/her without a long-winded procedure then you can be in trouble. You on the other hand must tread very carefully -no rudeness, no comments that could be wrongly interpreted, nothing that in any way could be used against you in any dispute.

If your business goes broke they'll get redundancy and two hundred euros in their hand every week. You get nothing -you are an employer so deserve nothing, and how dare you let your business fail and not provide employment to other people!

And how dare you not know the thousand and one rules and regulations that are churned out by securely employed public servants and their masters in Dublin and Brussels.

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O.K. The above is exaggerated tongue-in-cheek and I've rarely had a problem with an average of twenty employees over the last 25 years, most of whom stayed with me for an average of 15 years. I've now closed much of my business and my employees left on good terms,and am still friendly with them.

BUT I'm just getting across the opinion that some people - have about "employers" -(just as they do about "landlords" who are equally as scummy).

Being aware of what these idiots think helps in ensuring a smoother employer-employee relationship.

Making them redundant is possible.

2 weeks pay for every year of service with one additional week (if over 2 years service)

if you want to make them redundant, make the role redundant otherwise if you hire again for that role you will be in trouble. If you can offer no suitable alternative position then they can become redundant, if you offer alternative employment and they dont want it then its their choice to go. Dont forget to give appropriate advance paperwork RP50 etc.

Hope this helps!

you can in fact make someone redundant and take them back later in exactly the same role. I've done it when business was slack-and could prove it was bad - amd then when things picked up I rehired them on.