Part time hours being cut?

My wife currently works 18.5 hours a week and has been told by her company that part of her work has gone and her hours will be cut by 6 hours. There is no prospect of her hours being increased again in the future. Is she in a position to argue for redundancy payment to compensate for the lost hours?

She can only claim redundancy if her employment has been terminated.

A reduction of hours is usually a change in the terms and conditions of employment, which she does not have to agree to. If she doesn't agree, then she may be made fully redundant. She chould set out in writing that she only accepts the reduced hours as a temporary measure and that she expects to be put back on her previous hours when this becomes financially viable.

This will at least protect her redundancy position in the event that things get worse and she is made fully redundant in the future. If she agrees to the reduction of hours, she could find that a future redundancy payment is based on her reduced salary as redundancy is based on your final salary. If she does set out her that she only accepts it as a temporary measure then any future redundancy payment should be based on her full salary.

She should also try to negotiate to ensure that her lost hours are concentrated into full days of unemployment rather than losing an hour or two each day, so that she maximises any entitlement to Jobseekers Benefit.

If you're working too and have dependent children (and between you both you're still working 19 hours a week), then it may be that the reduction of hours/salary might bring you within the limits of Family Income Supplement. See here for more detail http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Schemes/BirthChildrenAndFamilies/ChildRelatedPayments/Pages/fis.aspx