I have a week to make a decision and I'm confused :-(

mr_chips_5

Hi everyone,

I've been employed at my current company for just over 7 years. I'm currently on £32,000 p/a and contracted to work 5 days a week between 9 and 5:30. I have redundancy protection in place which would cover me for £900 a month (£30 monthly premium) were I to lose my job.

I am vaguely looking at moving abroad in the middle of this year anyway so the ideal situation would have been that I was made redundant in June, I could have taken a few months of insurance money and flown off to sunnier climes with around £2500 of statutory redundancy pay (7 weeks based on my 7 years' employment at the £350 max weekly pay) and rent out my flat which would be great since my mortgage payments have plummeted since the interest rate drops.

However, after a business review meeting the directors took me into a conference room this morning, explained openly the financial situation of the company and explained that they would be cutting all back-office staff's hours and salary by 20%. My monthly pay would drop from £2040 a month to £1670. They still want me on-site 5 days a week which I thought was a little cheeky. There is a 1 week consultation period in which I can talk to them openly about my thoughts and proposals but they say they will make a final decision by end of play next friday.

I made the suggestion that I might accept the reduced hours on the basis of 4 days a week if they could make me redundant in June which they said they would consider.

I've since heard that the reduced hours might be a sneaky tactic on their part as the contract would be modified and I would be classed as part time hance reducing their liability for redundancy payments. I'm also worried that this would affect my insurance payouts (from PaymentShield).

I'm all in a a bit of a muddle at the moment and would appreciate the advice of someone who knows what they are talking about, unlike myself.

Should I refuse the offer of reduced hours? Would they then be forced to make me redundant? Should I tell them that I'd accept the reduced hours on the basis they would make me redundant in June but not alter my contract in the meantime?

Help! (and many thanks in advance)

liney

If you work part time the rules are still the same for redundancy payments, however the payments are based on your current salary so effectively they could be paying you less in the finish.

I would check with ACAS whether there is a qualifying period before the 4 day week is accepted as your normal week, and therefore what they work out the payments from.

You would need to inform the insurance company of the changes, although as long as you continue to pay the same premium i would guess the payout to be the same. Perhaps there are some terms and conditions for such things on their website?

sammyjammy

It wouldn't make any difference to the redundancy payment as the OP would still be over the £350 per week maximum statutory payment.

liney

sammyjammy wrote: »

It wouldn't make any difference to the redundancy payment as the OP would still be over the £350 per week maximum statutory payment.

Well spotted

mr_chips_5

Well it's worst case scenario.I proposed they keep me on at 37.5 hours a week and then make me redundant at the end of July. I would then give them 6 months' off-site support for free. They rejected it and efectively said ' accept the 30 hours a week or resign.

Is this not breach of contract on their part as I am contracted to work 37.5 hours a week? Would my only option to be to resign if I didn't accept?

Thanks for the help so far.