AS the grip of recession gets tighter, fear of redundancy has emerged as a major source of financial worry.

More than a quarter of workers fear that they are about to lose their jobs, while one in five thinks their personal financial circumstances will worsen in the next year, according to a recent Ipsos Mori poll.

At the other extreme, over 80pc of respondents to a survey by employment law consultancy group Peninsula Ireland said they were worried for their jobs.

Whatever the extent of these fears, they are not surprising given current employment figures. Recent statistics from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show a 57pc rise in the number of redundancies compared to this time last year.

Nearly 37,000 people have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year, which adds up to an average of about 770 jobs lost each week.

But if you are facing redundancy, having some knowledge of your rights can make all the difference when dealing with employers, and in ensuring that you are not denied any of the redundancy pay or compensation you are entitled to by law. To qualify for redundancy you must be aged 16 or over and have worked continuously for your employer for two years. The same rule applies in most cases if you work part-time.

Any absences that you have taken, such as for holidays, illness, maternity, parental or carer’s leave, will not count as gaps when calculating your total length of service.

However, if you were absent for more than 52 weeks due to an injury at work, 26 weeks due to illness or spent any time on strike during the last three years, these absences will not be counted as service. Under the terms of the Redundancy Payments Act, you are entitled to a minimum of two weeks’ pay for every year of service, and one week’s further pay. This payment is tax-free up to a maximum of €600 per week, or €31,200 a year.

Some employers may offer more than the statutory minimum, such as a month’s pay for every year of service. If they do pay you more than the minimum, you may have to pay some tax on this.

Employees who have not yet served at least two years may still receive some payment. But this is only happens with the agreement of the employer, and is not mandatory. But if the employer has serious financial problems and cannot or will not make even the statutory redundancy payment, employees are still protected.

If your employer can’t make this payment, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will step in and make the payment through the Social Insurance Fund.

You are entitled to at least two weeks’ notice if you are being made redundant. You are also entitled to reasonable paid time off to look for a new job.

Given the recession, you are probably more likely to be made redundant along with a large number of employees in a firm.

In many ways, being part of a collective redundancy is a better situation to be in than if you were the only employee let go, because the process of making a group of employees redundant is, by law, much more rigorous.

"If not all staff are to be let go and there has been an element of selecting those employees who will go and who will stay, the selection criteria must stand up to scrutiny," said Alicia Compton, a partner in the employment unit of William Fry solicitors. In a collective redundancy, employers must, by law, consult with employee representatives or trade unions well before dismissals are issued.

They must discuss the possibility of avoiding the redundancies, reducing the number of employees affected and the grounds on which particular employees will be made redundant.

"In the case of individuals, the situation is considerably less regulated," says Ms Compton.

However, she adds that if an employee makes a claim for unfair dismissal, "the way in which the employer went about implementing the redundancy will be closely examined".

"If the employer is found to have acted unreasonably, this will greatly assist the employee’s case."

If you have more than 12 months’ service, you can allege unfair dismissal if you believe you were selected in an unfair or unreasonable way.

However, it doesn’t matter if you are the only one being made redundant or whether it’s a collective redundancy; you are still entitled to the minimum statutory redundancy payment.