ISME seeks redundancy cut derogation

ISME wants the Government to effectively exclude small firms from the redundancy rebate reduction scheme, as the resulting increase in costs will have a “devastating” effect on indigenous firms.

Before Christmas, the Government announced that it was slashing payments to employers announcing redundancies; reasoning that it would go some way to stopping big firms receiving refunds from the state when they decide to leave the country. Recent examples of this have been Talk-Talk, Dell and SR Technics. Larger firms have been able to claim back 60% of their statutory redundancy payments, but that rebate has been cut to just 15%.

However, ISME claims that the cut is simply increasing the costs of redundancy for most firms by 112% and is having a “devastating” effect on the SME community.