Northern Ireland companies planning to make multiple redundancies must inform the Government before telling staff under new regulations being introduced soon.
The Department for Employment and Learning said today notification of collective redundancies - where 20 or more employees are to be made redundant - must be made to the authorities before redundancy notices are issued after October 6th.
At present notification can be made after issue of redundancy notices. The new regulations address a European Court of Justice ruling which clarified that the authorities had to be told first.
A departmental spokesman said: "This amendment will ensure that notification of collective redundancies to the Government will occur earlier, enabling the relevant authority to take appropriate action to mitigate the effects of those concerned."