East Antrim Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson has called on the Economy Minister to act urgently to protect workers facing redundancy, as the Government in London has confirmed it will legislate to ensure redundancy is calculated on the basis of contractual pay, rather than furlough pay.

Mr Dickson commented: “I have been aware of this issue for the past few months, in fact in an Assembly Written Question in June, the Economy Minister confirmed to me that: ‘There is nothing in the scheme that prevents employers from taking into consideration time on furlough when calculating redundancy pay’.

“I found this deeply concerning, and subsequently asked if she will introduce regulations to ensure redundancy is calculated based on regular contractual pay. The Minister assured me the matter would be kept under review. Nonetheless, now changes are being made in the rest of the UK, I have written to the Minister to ask her to urgently take action to protect Northern Ireland workers.

“It would be wholly unfair for workers to lose out due to the Job Retention Scheme, which was intended to help both employees and employers, and with many people facing the prospect of redundancy, workers must receive the redundancy payments they are contractually entitled to.”