24
Apr
What is Lay – Off?
A lay-off situation arises if your employer:
- Is unable to provide work for you,
- Believes this is a temporary situation and,
- Gives you notification of the lay off before the work finishes.
It may be a case that your employer may have had to close their business due to COVID-19 and in turn has no work for you. This is called a temporary lay-off. During lay off you remain an employee even if you are not being paid.
What are short-time working arrangements?
Short-time working refers to a very specific situation where:
- Your weekly pay is less than half your normal weekly pay or,
- The hours you work are reduced to less than half of your normal weekly working hours,
- Your employer has a reasonable belief that the situation will be temporary.
Your employment rights during lay-off or short-time
During lay off or short-time working, you still are employed by your employer and your contract of employment remains in force. This means that you are entitled to benefit for any public holidays that occur during the first 13 weeks of lay off.
You do not accrue annual leave during lay off but you are entitled to take annual leave that you accrued before being laid off.
Changes to redundancy rules during COVID-19 emergency period
The law on claiming redundancy from your employer if you have been temporarily laid off, or temporarily put on short-time work has changed during the COVID-19 emergency period.
Normally, if you are laid off or put on short-time hours, you can claim redundancy from your employer after 4 weeks or more, or 6 weeks in the last 13 weeks.