A turkey farm worker who was able to produce a two-decade-old company handbook to back up her employment tribunal case after her ex-employer stated it had no records earlier than 2018, has won an order for 20 years’ statutory redundancy.
Teresa Kane, who was a seasonal worker on a poultry farm operated by JR Boning (Ireland) Limited at Meadowbank, Kellistown Co Carlow, secured the order under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 following the closure of her former workplace in March 2024.
Ms Kane told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that since she was first hired in August 2004 she had typically worked a season usually starting in the early summer and extending to Christmas or occasionally into the New Year.
Her earnings were €650 a week for a 39-hour week, she said in evidence, but added that she “sometimes could work seven days a week”.
When she worked her last day on the job on 17 December 2023, she “was not informed that the farm was due to close permanently”, and did not learn of the closure until the following August, she said.
She wrote to the business seeking statutory redundancy, got no response, and referred the matter to the WRC, she said.
The tribunal noted that nobody appeared on behalf of the turkey farm operator when the matter was called on for hearing in May this year.
Adjudication officer Seamus Clinton noted correspondence from a representative of the turkey farm operator, Joe Rice, arguing that Ms Kane’s employment had been terminated at the end of each season and that she was “not entitled to a redundancy payment”.
Mr Rice’s correspondence enclosed sample employment contracts from 2018 and 2019 for Ms Kane and added that “records were not available for previous years”.
Between 2018 and 2023, Ms Kane had worked for the company for varying periods ranging from four months to 10 months, the employer’s submission stated.
Mr Clinton wrote in his decision that the employer’s position seemed to be that Ms Kane’s employment terminated prior to the closure of the farm in March 2024, though there had been “no further evidence” to “clarify the validity of their assertion that the employment ended after each season”.
He wrote that he was “not satisfied” with the employer’s denial that redundancy money was due – noting the contents of an employee handbook signed by Ms Kane in August 2004, which the worker had provided to him.
While the company’s contention was that Ms Kane’s employment terminated at the end of every season, the handbook described the business as “seasonal by its very nature” – and referred to the need for “layoffs, short-time working and redundancies” as a result.
Mr Clinton found that Ms Kane had “continuous employment each season for 20 years” and had built up seniority in the workplace.
“She was effectively a regular employee, although [she] did not work for several months each year due to the nature of the business,” he wrote.
He wrote that under the terms of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967, a worker “can be in ‘continuous employment’ whether notice of layoff was given or not”.
Mr Clinton found Ms Kane was “entitled to a statutory lump sum payment under the Act”, subject to confirmation of her PRSI status for the period and excluding those periods in which she was not working at the farm.
