Minimum Redundancy

For what reason would a company offer more than the minimum legal redundancy required by them? I have heard of many people receiving whopping payments and would like to know why?

In some cases it would be part of deals negotiated with unions to prevent strike action.

It can also be to encourage staff to take a voluntary redundancy package to avoid all the hassle and risk associated with compulsary redundancies. This would especially be the case where the employer is not in danger of going out of business but realises it needs to reduce it's operating costs going forward

thanks for the reply.
We have recently been told that it is likely our office will close, our circumstances are such that we are not protected by a union and the company will be wanting to relocate the staff internationally (which is not desirable).
The company is very profitable and our office has never been anything but profitable as far as i'm aware. It seems unfair that we could be closed in this way, and be offered so little by way of compensation (especially since the government in fact reimburse over half of this).
Is there ever grounds for unfair redundancy or am i grasping at invisible straws?

trentV said:

thanks for the reply.
We have recently been told that it is likely our office will close, our circumstances are such that we are not protected by a union and the company will be wanting to relocate the staff internationally (which is not desirable).
The company is very profitable and our office has never been anything but profitable as far as i'm aware. It seems unfair that we could be closed in this way, and be offered so little by way of compensation (especially since the government in fact reimburse over half of this).
Is there ever grounds for unfair redundancy or am i grasping at invisible straws?

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Are they closing the entire Irish operation, or a portion of it ?

Once a company obeys the law on being fair in choosing those for redundancy, they have no obligation to pay any more than statuatory
redundancy.

One reason for paying more is to improve the morale of the people left behind, and not make them feel that thay might be shafted too,
but if a company is leaving Ireland completely, they dont need to do this,
and you are dependent on their good will.

Many ( but not all) multinationals do pay decent redundancy, in non-unionised environments, you cant say that all non-unionised jobs get
treated worse in these circumstances.

They will cease to have any Irish operations, we are a small office.
I suspected it was only good will that could be relied on, its a pity since they will be trying to encourage us to stay with the company by moving internationally and thus wont want to make the redundancy package very appealing.