§ Mr. Woodallasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether workers who are put on short-time working under the Government's temporary short-time working compensation scheme will suffer any loss of redundancy pay as a result of their drop in wages, should they nevertheless eventually be made redundant; and, in particular, whether the following categories of workers would be adversely affected; (a) those whose pay varies with the amount of work done and (b) those who have normal working hours, but who are required under their contract to work those hours on days of the week, or at times of the day, which differ from week to week or over a longer period.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonA statutory redundancy payment is calculated by reference to the rate of pay which is payable by the employer under the contract of employment in force on the calculation date. This rate is not prejudiced by the operation of the temporary short-time working compensation scheme, provided the contract is not otherwise varied.
Where the remuneration under the contract varies in the two ways indicated, the week's pay is derived from the average hourly rate during the 12 weeks prior to the calculation date, taking account only of the hours during which the employee works, multiplied by the number of normal working hours specified in the contract.