Labour Court recommends five weeks’ pay per service year for Panasonic redundancies

The Labour Court recommended redundancy payments of five weeks’ pay per year of service, excluding statutory payments, for three workers at Panasonic Ireland Limited. The decision was dated 29 November 2001. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union sought eight weeks’ pay per year of service, while Panasonic’s final offer was three weeks plus statutory entitlements. The union said the redundancies were compulsory and the workers should be compensated properly; Panasonic said the redundancies were necessary and its offer was fair. The Court noted that at least one vacancy had arisen since the redundancies were declared before recommending the five-week payment.