Financial Services Union calls for changes to the statutory 30-day consultation period for collective redundancy

Protection of Employment Acts’ need to be updated to  create a fairer, transparent, and equal system says FSU

The Financial Services Union (FSU have today called on the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Tourism, Peter Burke TD to update the Protection of Employment Acts to create a level playing field for employees who are engaged in the statutory 30 days consultation period under collective redundancy legislation.

The FSU represents employees across the financial services, Fintech, and tech sector.

The Protection of Employment Acts, 1977 – 2014 requires the employer to inform the Minister of any upcoming collective redundancies over 30  and to consult with employee representatives  with a view to reaching agreement.

Commenting Gareth Murphy, Head of Industrial Relations and Campaigns with the FSU said:

“The last twelve months have seen considerable retrenchment in staff levels in the fintech and technology sector. Recent job loss announcements  in TikTok, Meta and Covalen have added to the ever-increasing numbers of employees dealing with the prospect of redundancy. It is vital we have a fair, transparent, and equal system that protects the interests of the employee.

legislation covering the 30-day collective redundancy notice has many flaws including but not limited to

• Current legislation does not require the employer to engage with a trade union even if its workforce are members of a trade union. This significantly effects the ability of employees to access proper training and information during negotiations. This creates from the outset an imbalance of power between the employee and the employer.
• There is no incentive or onus on the employer to reach an agreement.
• Employers can constantly  prevaricate in order to get to the end of the 30 days rather than engaging with a view to reaching agreement  in any meaningful way.
• There is no dispute resolution procedure should no agreement be reached.

We need to

• Update the legislation to ensure trade unions are facilitated to train employee representatives on site and in person if requested by the employee.
• Trade union representation and attendance at meetings, if requested by Employee Representatives, must be mandatory for Employers to facilitate.
• New legislation should provide a non-exhaustive but clearer list of mitigations employers must consider first before moving to any form of redundancy
• Employers must provide for a voluntary-first process before moving to any potential compulsory notice.
• Employee Reps should have the right to a further 30-day extension of the consultation period where no agreement is reached and before any notice can be given to individuals.
• Where no agreement is reached, and after the 30-day extension, there should be a very clear and mandatory dispute resolution procedure utilising the WRC and/or Labour Court.

These changes are necessary to protects the rights of the employee and are considered as the minimum standard in many European countries.”

ENDS

Lessons from Tech Redundancies: https://www.fsunion.org/assets/files/pdf/fsu_lessons_from_tech_redundancies_a5.pdf