The Restaurants Association of Ireland has warned of a potential "avalanche" of redundancy claims from next Sunday, when certain laid-off employees with no prospect of work will regain the legal right to demand to be made redundant - including the payment of redundancy lump sums.
However, informed sources have told RTÉ that the Government is almost certain to extend the suspension of those rights before the weekend, to avoid the burden of paying out so many lump sums simultaneously -potentially putting some employers out of business, and placing huge strain on the state's Social Insurance Fund.
Normally, under Section 12 of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967, a worker who has been laid off or put on short time can apply to have that layoff