Government warned change to redundancy rebate will close firms

THE Government has been warned that its plan to reduce the amount companies can claim back from redundancy payments will put some firms out of business.

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has called on Government to tweak its proposals from simply introducing a blanket reduction in the redundancy payment rebate, for employers, from 60% to 15% in January, to restricting the current rebate to the small business community.

Such a move, according to the CIF, would remove the risk of the rebate being abused by large multinational employers and — at the same time — maintain supports for SMEs already struggling through the economic crisis.