Redundancy notice periods in Ireland: how much notice you are owed

Being told your job is redundant does not end your employment that day. You are owed notice, or pay instead of it, and the length depends on how long you have worked for the employer. The notice period also matters for the redundancy sum itself, because your service for the calculation runs to the date the notice ends. This guide covers the bands, pay in lieu, the collective rule and what happens to your leave while you work out your notice.

The statutory bands

The Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005 set a floor. Once you have 13 weeks' continuous service, your employer must give at least:

Because statutory redundancy itself needs 104 weeks' service, anyone with a statutory entitlement is owed at least two weeks' notice, and most people with longer service are owed more.

Your contract can set a longer period, and if it does, the longer period applies. It cannot set a shorter one; a clause that tries to is overridden by the Acts. If your contract is silent, the statutory band is your entitlement.

The notice calculator gives the band from your start date and the date notice was given, and shows the contractual figure alongside if you enter it.

The two-week RP50 notice is gone

Older guidance says an employer must give at least two weeks' notice of redundancy on form RP50. That form, and the separate two-week requirement attached to it, no longer exist: the paper process was replaced and employers no longer file an RP50 for each redundancy. What you are owed now is your minimum notice under the Minimum Notice Acts, or your contractual notice if longer. In practice this changes little for anyone with a statutory entitlement, since two years' service already brings two weeks' notice, but it does mean there is no longer a separate redundancy notice form to ask for.

The employer should still give you written notice of the redundancy with your termination date. Ask for it if you have only been told verbally.

Working the notice or pay in lieu

Your employer can ask you to work your notice, in which case you are paid as normal and your employment ends on the last day. Or the employer can pay you in lieu of notice, if your contract allows it or you agree, in which case your employment ends on the date the employer says and you receive the pay you would have earned over the notice period.

Three points about pay in lieu:

• It is taxed as ordinary pay, with PRSI and USC. It is not part of the statutory redundancy lump sum and does not get the tax-free treatment.
• The notice period still counts towards your service for the redundancy calculation, so the end date for the formula is the date the notice would have ended, not the date you stopped working. If that date tips you into another complete year, or over the 104 weeks, it matters.
• You cannot be made to accept pay in lieu if your contract does not provide for it. If the employer insists, the usual result is that it owes you the pay anyway as damages for the notice it did not give.

Either side can waive notice by agreement. Some people prefer to leave at once and take the money; others would rather stay for the extra weeks of service and the chance to look for work on full pay. Neither is wrong.

Notice during a collective redundancy

Where the numbers are large enough to be a collective redundancy under the Protection of Employment Act 1977, the employer must consult employee representatives for at least 30 days and notify the Minister before the first notice of dismissal takes effect. The thresholds (drawn from commentary, to be checked against the Act) are 5 or more redundancies in a workforce of 20 to 49, 10 or more in 50 to 99, 10% or more in 100 to 299, and 30 or more in 300 or more.

The 30 days are a consultation period, not a notice period. Your own minimum notice runs separately and can begin only once the consultation has run and the Minister has been notified, so in a collective redundancy the time between being told your role is at risk and your last day is usually the 30 days plus your notice band. The lead guide has more on collective consultation.

Annual leave and public holidays during notice

You remain an employee during notice, so the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 keeps applying.

• Accrual continues. You build up annual leave for every week of notice you work, and for notice paid in lieu where the notice period counts as service.
• Taking leave during notice. Your employer decides when leave is taken, but has to consult you and take your family responsibilities and rest into account. Being told to use up all your leave in the notice period is lawful if the consultation happened; being told the day before is a weaker position for the employer.
• Leave not taken. Anything accrued and not taken by your end date is paid in your final pay. Ask for it as a separate line.
• Public holidays. A public holiday falling during notice is treated as normal. One falling within a week of your leaving may also be owed, depending on your hours in the previous five weeks.

Sick leave during notice

If you are sick during your notice period, you are still entitled to your notice pay. Under the Minimum Notice Acts, an employee who is ready and willing to work during notice is paid for it, and the WRC has treated illness during notice as not removing the entitlement. Statutory sick pay and Illness Benefit can run alongside, and your employer's own sick-pay scheme may say more. Service on sick leave counts for the redundancy formula.

Notice and the redundancy sum

Two dates matter and they are often confused.

• The date you were told. This starts the notice period. It is not your termination date.
• The date the notice ends. This is your termination date for the Redundancy Payments Acts, and the end point for counting your service. Complete years and days over 365 are counted to this date, and the 104-week qualifying period is measured to it as well.

So if you were told on 1 March with four weeks' notice, your termination date is 29 March, and the redundancy calculation uses 29 March. If the employer pays you in lieu and asks you to leave on 1 March, the end date for the formula is still 29 March. The calculator explainer covers the counting rules.

What the employer owes if it gets notice wrong

If your employer gives less notice than the band, or none, and the dismissal is not for gross misconduct, you can complain to the WRC under the Minimum Notice Acts. The adjudicator can award the pay you lost for the notice not given. The complaint must be made within 6 months of the date your employment ended, extendable to 12 months for reasonable cause and never beyond; the deadline checker works the date out, and the how to make a WRC complaint guide takes you through the form.

A missing notice period can also affect your redundancy sum if the correct end date would have brought you over a year boundary. Raise both in the same complaint.

Notice during lay-off and short time

If you are on lay-off or short time and give notice of your intention to claim redundancy, or the employer moves to redundancy, your minimum notice is still owed at your normal pay. See lay-off and short time.

Notice you owe the employer

If you decide to leave before the redundancy takes effect, perhaps because you have found another job, you owe your employer one week's notice under the Acts, or more if your contract says so. Leaving early can affect your statutory redundancy entitlement: the Acts have a specific procedure for an employee who wants to leave during the employer's notice period without losing the lump sum, which involves giving the employer written notice within the period and the employer not objecting in writing. Get advice before you hand in your notice during a redundancy notice period, because the lump sum can be lost.

Where this leaves you

Put your start date and the date you were given notice into the notice calculator to see the band you are in, the contractual figure if it is longer, and the date your employment ends, which is also the end date for your redundancy sum. If the employer has given less than the band, or you are thinking of leaving early during notice, a solicitor can tell you where you stand before you lose anything; the enquiry page explains how that works on this site.