Employer's Rights

I'm hoping someone can help me here, as someone has asked me this.

Small business with one employee of 10 years. Employee works 5 days a week at present....business has dropped substantially, so there is no need for 5 days a week now. Owner works 3 days at present, and will continue to do so.

What can the employer do here...?

Can they reduce the hours down to 3 days a week...?

Can they have no work or pay for a month and come back on 3 days a week...?

The owner would have trouble coming up with a redundancy payment so doesn't know what to do, but wants to know her rights and treat employee fairly.

You can reduce the employees hours depending on the contract of employment and any minimum hours specified therein.

If you are unable to provide enough work for an employee over a temporary period you are allowed to lay them off as long as you intend to take them back on again and you give them sufficient notice - if it goes on for too long (more than 4 consecutive weeks or 6 non consecutive weeks in a 13 week period) the employee has the right to claim redundancy see:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...ncy/lay-off-short-time-working-and-redundancy

The best approach might be an explanation of the situation to the employee and see if a mutually agreeable outcome can be reached

Thanks c00lcarl for the reply.

Is it possible to permanently reduce someone down to a 3 day week, as opposed to temporarily reducing the hours...?