Labour TD Ged Nash has hit out at the government for refusing to lift the €600 cap on statutory redundancy. In a Dail reply to Deputy Nash, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke told the Labour TD that he has no plans to amend the cap, a limit that has been in place for twenty years.

Deputy Nash said; “With jobs on the line in BD, the way in which the statutory redundancy levels are calculated has come into view.

“The current rate is capped at €600 per week. The legal cap or limit is based on close to the average wage in certain economic sectors, but it was last reviewed in 2005.

“Using the formula that has always been used to calculate what the legal cap should be, it should now be set at over €1,000 per week. Yet, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail refuse point blank to review it.

“Doing so would boost redundancy packages for workers like those in BD and elsewhere, and would mean that profitable employers like BD would have to better fund redundancy packages.

“It is only fair that when wages go up, the statutory cap should go up too.

“As I said in my Budget speech in the Dail this week, in a week when the government has decided to dish out more generous inheritance tax breaks to those who are inheriting expensive houses in the leafier parts of the country, they have refused to make a small change that would impact on workers who are losing their jobs.

“Fine Gael and Fianna Fail must be made correct this injustice for working people.”