Its not a claw back per-se. Under the Irish pensions laws an employee does not have the right to retain the employers contributions to a pension if they leave the position with the company within the first 2 years of contributions to the pension (does not mean 2 years of service. If you have a 6 month probation for example, the employer will not contribute for that time. The period is 2 years from the first employers contribution). Any employee contribution is fully retained by the employee. In this case, because they are being made redundant, the employers share of the pension is refunded (through no fault of the employee).