Government has issued a statement denying there’s any change to the period in which people can claim for severance pay.
The Labour Ministry says the sections of the Severance Payments Act that speak about 4 weeks and 1 year were not affected by the recent legislative amendments. The ministry stresses such provisions remain in place and in force. It added that the worker has 4 weeks to trigger the process and the claim remains alive for 1 year, therefore the worker has 1 year to claim severance.
The ministry notes that the Severance Payments (Amendment) Act 2020, makes provision for an employee to “trigger” a claim for severance if placed on lay-off or short-time for 22 consecutive weeks or 18 or more weeks within a period of 24 weeks.

In addition, an employee who wishes to make a claim for severance in the circumstances, has to inform the employer of his intention within 4 weeks of becoming entitled.

The ministry emphasises that the time frame of four weeks is exactly the same as that specified in section 6 of the Severance Payments Act.