Collective consultation duties in Ireland
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Collective consultation is a legal obligation that applies when an employer proposes to make 20 or more employees redundant within a 30-day period. It requires a structured process — including mandatory timelines, employee representation and notification of the Minister for Enterprise — that runs separately from individual redundancy procedures.
What triggers collective consultation
The trigger is a proposal to make at least 20 redundancies at one establishment within any 30-day period. The number refers to proposed dismissals, not to the total size of the workforce. A company with 400 employees proposing 20 redundancies in one location must comply, just as a company with 25 employees proposing 20 redundancies must.
The obligation arises at the point of proposal — before any final decision is made. This matters because one of the core purposes of collective consultation is to give employee representatives a genuine opportunity to influence the outcome, not simply to be informed of it.
The legislation governing this is the Protection of Employment Act 1977, as amended. The rules apply regardless of how the redundancies are structured, whether compulsory, voluntary or a mix of both.
Who you must consult
You are required to consult with employee representatives. These can be trade union representatives where a union is recognised, or representatives elected or appointed by the affected employees themselves where no union is in place.
If no representative structures exist, you need to facilitate the election or appointment of representatives before consultation can begin. Proceeding without proper representation is not a shortcut — it is a breach of the legislation.
Consultation must be genuine and meaningful. The law requires you to provide representatives with specific written information, including:
- The reasons for the proposed redundancies
- The number and categories of employees affected
- The number of employees normally employed at the establishment
- The period over which redundancies are proposed
- The selection criteria you intend to use
- The method of calculating any redundancy payments beyond the statutory minimum
Minimum timeframes
Consultation must begin at least 30 days before the first notice of redundancy is issued. For proposed redundancies of 100 or more employees within a 90-day period, this extends to at least 60 days.
These are minimum periods. In practice, complex restructuring programmes often take considerably longer. The clock starts from when consultation begins with employee representatives, not from when the final decisions are made.
Notifying the Minister
You must also notify the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment of the proposed collective redundancies. This notification must be made at the same time as consultation with employee representatives begins — not after the process concludes.
The Minister's office can be notified using the prescribed RP50 form. A copy of that notification must be given to the employee representatives as well.
Redundancy notices cannot legally take effect until the minimum consultation period has expired and the Minister has been notified. Attempting to accelerate redundancies before these periods have run is a criminal offence under the Act.
What happens during consultation
The consultation process should cover ways of avoiding the redundancies, reducing the numbers affected, or mitigating the consequences. This is not a box-ticking exercise. Representatives should have enough time and information to engage substantively, and you are required to consider and respond to their proposals.
There is no obligation to agree to any particular outcome. The duty is to consult in good faith with a view to reaching agreement, not to reach agreement itself. However, dismissing representative proposals without proper consideration creates both legal and reputational risk.
Keep a clear record of all consultation meetings, the information provided, proposals made by representatives and your responses to them. This documentation can be critical if a complaint is later brought to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Individual redundancy procedures run alongside this
Collective consultation does not replace the obligations you have to individual employees. You still need to give proper individual notice, follow fair selection procedures and pay statutory redundancy entitlements.
Statutory redundancy pay in Ireland is calculated at two weeks' pay per year of service (capped at a weekly earnings ceiling) plus a bonus week. Separately, payroll for departing employees must be handled through real-time submissions to Revenue via ROS, with final pay reported on or before the relevant payday.
Employees with less than two years' continuous service do not qualify for statutory redundancy pay, but collective consultation duties still apply to their proposed dismissals when counting toward the 20-person threshold.
Consequences of getting it wrong
Breaching collective consultation rules is a criminal offence. Employers found in breach can be prosecuted, and affected employees can bring claims to the WRC. Where collective consultation was not carried out — or was carried out improperly — the WRC has the power to award protective awards, which can cover up to 90 days' remuneration per affected employee.
The reputational consequences of a poorly handled large-scale redundancy process can be significant too, particularly in smaller industries or regions where employer brand matters to future hiring.
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