Temporary lay-off and short time in Ireland: your rights and when you can claim redundancy

A lay-off is what happens when the work stops but the job, on paper, does not. Your employer tells you there is nothing for you to do for a while and that it will call you back. Short time is the lesser version: the work shrinks to less than half. Both are meant to be temporary, and the law gives you a way out if they are not. This guide covers what each term means, whether your employer is allowed to do it, what you live on in the meantime, and how to turn a lay-off into a redundancy claim when it has gone on long enough.

The definitions

The Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2014 define both terms.

Lay-off is where your employer is unable to provide the work you were employed to do, believes the stop is temporary, and tells you so before it begins. There is no work and, unless your contract says otherwise, no pay.

Short time is where, for the same reason and with the same notice, your hours or your pay are reduced to less than half of your normal weekly hours or pay. A cut from 40 hours to 25 is not short time in the statutory sense; a cut from 40 to 15 is.

In both cases the employer must have told you in advance and must reasonably believe the situation is temporary. A lay-off that the employer knows is permanent is a redundancy from the start, and you are entitled to be treated as redundant.

Can your employer lay you off?

The Acts describe lay-off but do not give employers a free-standing right to do it. The right comes from one of two places:

• Your contract, which may have a lay-off or short-time clause allowing the employer to stop or reduce work without pay when there is a downturn.
• Custom and practice, where lay-off without pay is an established and well-known feature of your industry or your workplace, as it has been in parts of construction and manufacturing.

Without either, a lay-off without pay may be a breach of contract and the unpaid wages may be an unlawful deduction under the Payment of Wages Act 1991. In that case you can complain to the WRC for the wages, with the 6-month time limit running from each pay day that was missed.

Even where the clause exists, the WRC expects it to be used reasonably: a genuine shortage of work, a temporary one, proper notice, and fair selection of who is laid off where not everyone is. A lay-off used to push one person out, or applied only to someone who raised a grievance, may be something else dressed up as a lay-off.

Pay during lay-off and short time

The default position is that lay-off is unpaid and short time is paid for the hours worked. Your contract may be more generous, and some collective agreements provide for a minimum payment during lay-off.

During lay-off or short time:

• Your employment continues. You are still an employee, your service is continuous, and your contractual terms other than pay and hours still apply.
• Annual leave. Under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, leave accrues on hours worked, so a full lay-off does not build leave; short time builds it on the reduced hours.
• Public holidays. The entitlement depends on your hours in the five weeks before the holiday, so a long lay-off can mean no public holiday pay.
• Notice. If the lay-off becomes a redundancy, your minimum notice is owed at your normal pay, not the lay-off rate; see redundancy notice periods.

Social welfare during lay-off

Jobseeker's Benefit is the first port of call for a full lay-off. It rests on your PRSI record, is not means tested, and is paid for the days you are not working. You apply through MyWelfare or your Intreo centre; your employer will usually be asked to confirm the lay-off. There are waiting days at the start of a claim.

Jobseeker's Allowance is the means-tested alternative if your PRSI record does not qualify you for Benefit.

Short-Time Work Support is a form of Jobseeker's Benefit for people on short time. It is paid for the days you do not work, alongside your wages for the days you do, where your employer has reduced your week to three days or fewer on a temporary basis. It is not means tested. The Department of Social Protection's Jobseeker's Benefit page sets out the conditions; the precise day-count rules and rates for 2026 were not confirmed for this guide and should be checked there.

You are expected to be available for and seeking work while claiming, even during a lay-off you expect to end. That is a condition of the payment, not a sign that you have given up the job.

Claiming redundancy: form RP9

The Acts give you a way to end a lay-off that has gone on too long. Once you have been on lay-off or short time for:

• four consecutive weeks, or
• six weeks in any period of thirteen weeks,

you can give your employer written notice of your intention to claim a redundancy payment. The traditional form is RP9, which you can still use, but a letter with the same content serves. The notice must be given within four weeks of the lay-off or short-time period ending, so if you are called back you still have a window.

The employer then has seven days to respond with a counter-notice. The counter-notice must state that the employer reasonably expects to give you at least thirteen weeks of continuous full employment starting within four weeks of your notice. If the employer serves a valid counter-notice and the work does come back as promised, there is no redundancy. If it does not serve a counter-notice, or serves one and the thirteen weeks do not materialise, you are entitled to the statutory redundancy sum.

Giving the notice has consequences, so read on before you send it.

What a redundancy claim means for you

A claim after lay-off is a real redundancy. Three things follow.

You give up the job. If the employer does not counter-notice, your employment ends. You will not be called back. Only give the notice if you have decided that the lay-off has become, in substance, the end of the role.

You are owed the statutory sum. Two weeks' pay for each year of continuous service plus one bonus week, with weekly pay capped at €600, free of tax, USC and PRSI, provided you have 104 weeks' continuous service. The lay-off weeks keep your service continuous, although the Acts treat lay-off weeks as non-reckonable for the count. Weekly pay is your normal pay before the lay-off, not the reduced pay. Someone with 6 years' service on €550 a week has a sum of 13 weeks × €550 = €7,150. The calculator explainer covers the counting; the redundancy calculator does the arithmetic.

You are owed notice. You must give the employer your own minimum notice (one week, or more under your contract) along with the redundancy notice. The employer owes you its minimum notice, or pay in lieu, based on your service: at least two weeks for anyone with a statutory redundancy entitlement.

If the employer cannot pay the sum because it is insolvent, the Department of Social Protection pays it from the Social Insurance Fund; see when the employer cannot pay.

When the employer moves first

Your employer can also end a lay-off by making you redundant itself. The same rules apply: the redundancy must be genuine, selection fair, the statutory sum owed, and notice given. If the employer offers alternative work on the way out, the offer has to be reasonable for a refusal to cost you the lump sum: a suitable role on similar terms, not a different job in a different place for less money.

A lay-off that never ends

An employer that keeps a lay-off going for months without using the counter-notice procedure, and without any real prospect of work, is in a weak position. The WRC has treated indefinite lay-offs as dismissals in substance. If you think that is where you are, the choices are to give the RP9 notice and take the redundancy, or to treat the lay-off as a dismissal and claim unfair dismissal within 6 months. The two routes have different consequences and most people take advice before choosing.

Where this leaves you

The redundancy calculator shows what the statutory sum would be if you give the RP9 notice and the employer does not counter-notice, from your start date, your normal weekly pay and the date the lay-off began. Before you send the notice, the question is whether the job is really coming back, and that is a judgement a union official or a solicitor can help you make with the facts in front of them; the enquiry page explains how that works on this site.