Redundancy is the most common doorway into a settlement agreement — and the most commonly misunderstood: people sign packages that are substantially entitlements dressed as generosity, and waive claims a tribunal would have taken seriously. The structure is simple once seen: a floor fixed by law, a layer purchased above it, and leverage created by how the process was run.
The Floor and the Layer
The floor: statutory redundancy, where the redundancy is genuine and you qualify, is fixed by law — it cannot be bargained below, and no settlement agreement reduces it; accrued holidays and proper notice sit on the floor with it. The layer: everything genuinely above — the ex gratia enhancement, the agreed reference with wording attached, the announcement line, notice garden-leaved with benefits running, outplacement, the carve-outs handled consciously — is what your waiver is purchasing, and the review’s first audit is exactly this separation: how much of the package is floor, how much is layer. The non-money layer deserves particular respect in redundancy exits: the money leaves the account once, while the reference and the narrative compound for years — and “redundancy” itself, locked in writing as the agreed framing, is a departure story that carries no stigma. One flag: new restrictive covenants have no place in a redundancy exit, and their appearance is a negotiation point, never boilerplate.
The Leverage — and the Three Roads
Leverage in redundancy settlements comes from the tribunal’s questions: is the redundancy genuine — a real diminution in work of your kind, or a dismissal in redundancy’s clothes? Was selection fair — objective criteria honestly applied, or a matrix reverse-engineered around a chosen name? Was consultation real — capable of changing the outcome, alternatives genuinely explored? Each doubtful answer is a claim with value, and the package is the price of waiving it — deployed with precision rather than brandished, the employer left a dignified route to the better number. Where the questions have bad answers, three roads get compared honestly: negotiate up (usually right — the risk priced into the deal); contest through the statutory route (the slower road for strong claims badly underpriced — the firm’s dedicated practice at redundancysolicitors.ie carries that terrain); or, rarely, urgent remedies where a dismissal is being executed in clear breach — the territory of the firm’s injunction practice. Mid-consultation, one discipline above all: sign nothing, resign from nothing, agree nothing verbally — leverage is most alive exactly when it’s most easily spent, and the sequencing conversation belongs before the next meeting.
A Redundancy Package on the Table?
The floor separated from the layer, the process questions valued, the three roads compared - within 48 hours, before the next consultation meeting.
Call 01 5827148