The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has found that fisherman Kwesi Prempeh is entitled to statutory redundancy pay after his employment ended when fishing vessels were decommissioned. It ordered Millbay Fishing Company Ltd to pay him within 42 days.
The decision was dated 4 March 2024. Prempeh worked as a fisherman from August 2016 until May 2023. He argued that the statutory payment was separate from compensation available to crew under the Brexit Voluntary Permanent Cessation Scheme. The company opposed his claim, saying the scheme payment was in lieu of redundancy and a second payment would be unfair.
The officer found that Prempeh met the statutory eligibility requirements, including the required period of continuous employment. The scheme guidelines did not say that crew compensation replaced employees’ redundancy entitlements. The WRC therefore found the redundancy complaint well founded. Statutory redundancy pay is an entitlement under employment law when an eligible worker loses their job in a qualifying redundancy; the crew scheme payment did not remove that entitlement.