DEATH OF EMPLOYEE (Hansard, 21 July 1965)

§ Mr. McBride

I beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed Schedule, in line 193, after "employee", to insert: who dies before the end of the period of six months beginning with the relevant date". The purpose of the Amendment is to put right what is, I believe, a small anomaly in Part II of the proposed Schedule concerning the death of an employee. Clause 21 provides that employees must, in general, claim redundance payments within six months of the date when the payment became due, unless the case has gone before them to a tribunal.

Paragraph 20 of the new Schedule seeks to provide an extended time limit of 12 months in the case where the employee has died and his claim has to be pursued by his personal representatives. In some cases, it might be a considerable time before the personal representatives were in a position to act, and an extended time limit is obviously reasonable. But, as paragraph 20 stands, it has an effect which I am sure was not intended.

If the employee allowed the six months to go by without claiming his payment, he would be debarred from claiming by Clause 21. But if he died at any time within the next following six months his personal representatives could then revive the claim, because paragraph 20 of the new Schedule allows them to claim on behalf of the deceased employee at any time within 12 months of the date on which the payment became due.

That, I think, would clearly be illogical and inconsistent. The employee has had ample time in which to make his claim, and if he fails to do so there is really no case for allowing the claim to be revived because of something that happens after the normal time limit has expired. What, I think, was clearly intended is that only where the employee dies before the six months have expired should there be an 1790 extension of the time limit. I hope that the House will agree that that is what the Amendment secures.

155	16. Where an employer has given notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and before that notice expires the employee dies, the provisions of Part I of this Act shall apply as if the contract had been duly terminated by the employer by notice expiring on the date of the employee's death.
160	17. Where an employer has given notice to an employee to terminate his contract of employment, and has offered to renew his contract of employment, or to re-engage him under a new contract, then if—
	(a) the employee dies without having either accepted or refused the offer, and
	(b) the offer has not been withdrawn before his death,
165	subsection (3) or (as the case may be) subsection (4) of section 2 of this Act shall apply as if, for the words "the employee has unreasonably refused", there were substituted the words "it would have been unreasonable on the part of the employee to refuse".
170	18.—(1) Where, in the circumstances specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of section 4 of this Act, the employee dies before the notice given by him under paragraph (b) of that subsection is due to expire and before the employer has given him notice under subsection (3) of that section, subsection (4) of that section shall apply as if the employer had given him such notice and he had not complied with it.
175	(2) Where, in the circumstances specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of that section, the employee dies before his notice given under paragraph (b) of that subsection is due to expire but after the employer has given him notice under subsection (3) of that section, subsections (3) and (4) of that section shall apply as if the circumstances were that the employee had not died, but did not comply with the last-mentioned notice.
180	19.—(1) Where an employee has given notice of intention to claim and dies before he has given notice to terminate his contract of employment and before the period allowed for the purposes of subsection (3) (a) of section (Right to redundancy payment by reason of lay-off or short-time) of this Act has expired, the said subsection (3) (a) shall not apply.
185	(2) Where an employee, who has given notice of intention to claim, dies within seven days after the service of that notice, and before the employer has given a counter-notice, the provisions of sections (Right to redundancy payment by reason of lay-off or short-time) and (Supplementary provisions as to redundancy payments in respect of lay-off or short-time) of this Act shall apply as if the employer had given a counter-notice within those seven days.
190	(3) In this paragraph "notice of intention to claim" and "counter-notice" have the same meanings as in section (Supplementary provisions as to redundancy payments in respect of lay-off or short-time) of this Act.
	20. In relation to the making of a claim by a personal representative of a deceased employee, section 21 of this Act shall apply with the substitution, for the words "six months", of the words "one year".
195	21. Subject to the preceding provisions of this Part of this Schedule, in relation to an employee who has died—
	(a) any reference in this Act to the doing of anything by, or in relation to, an employee shall be construed as including a reference to the doing of that thing by, or in relation to, any personal representative of the deceased employee, and
200	(b) any reference in this Act to a thing required or authorised to be done by, or in relation to, an employee shall be construed as including a reference to anything which, in accordance with any provision of this Act as modified by this Part of this Schedule (including the preceding sub-paragraph), is required or authorised to be done by, or in relation to, any personal representative of his.
205	22.—(1) Any right of a personal representative of a deceased employee to a redundancy payment, where that right had not accrued before the employee's death, shall devolve as if it had accrued before his death.
	(2) In relation to any case where, under any provision contained in Part I of this Act as modified by the preceding provisions of this Part of this Schedule, a tribunal has power