PILON & New employment

Deam

Hi

My DH has been made redundant from Friday. He has 3 months PILON and the company will pay him for the use of his phone and healthcare benefits for this period. What happens if he gets a new job within the 3 month PILON period? Does he lose some of his PILON pay?

There is no mention of gardening leave though in his letter. He has stated that he will get 12 weeks notice as he has been there for 12 years. He will work one week of that notice. His actual redundancy date is June 12th. There is nothing in the letter stating when he will get any payment.

When should PILON be paid, is it in a lump sum and when should his redundancy payment be made. All that he has been told is that the statutory redundancy payment will be due and the amount of this.

LittleVoice

He is not receiving PILON (pay in lieu of notice). He is receiving his normal pay but not being required to go into work during his notice period. The fact that he also has phone and other benefits during the notice period shows it is not in place ("in lieu") of receiving proper notice.

They could therefore argue that, if he began working for another company, he had resigned from his job with them and would be entitled to no further payment from them. The phrase "garden(ing) leave" does not have to be a specific phrase in correspondence for that to be what it is.

Pete111

I work in HR and this situation seems odd

Until you are formally made redundant you cannot usually be given notice your work will definately cease. Assuming you were made redundant at the end of march and had a 3 month notice you would:

a) be expected to work your notice until the end of June with your termination date being 30th June

PILON would apply IMMEDIATELY and your termination date would be at the end of March with all termination payments following as soon as practicable afterwards

c) a mix of the two - ie work one months notice towards a termination date. then you leave and receive PILON of 2 months

I'm fairly sure as an employer you cannot give a termination date set in 3 months time and say you are invoking PILON as PILON usually indicates the end of a contract - ie as an employee you have no notice left you are no longer beholden. The situation you describe feels more like gardening leave to me though this is not due to the benefits casting a shadow forward (these can be agreed to continue after termination without indicating employment) but rather the formal termination date being set in the future.

In short I agree with Little voice! Though I would raise the issue of new positions hypothetically with the employer - many are minded to be reasonable regarding this type of situation.

liney

So to confirm, PILON is a compensatory payment to an employee who is not required to work, but is being paid the notice they would be entitled to? IE you are being made redundant with immediate effect, so your end date is tommorrow, however on Friday (next pay day) you will be paid the the two weeks we didn't require you work.. (?)

Is that right?

Deam

Hi and thanks for the answers everyone

After phoning his ex boss, my DH got confirmation that he is on gardening leave till 12th June and it is at this point his redundancy payment will be made. He was also told that should he find employment before that time then the gardening leave payments will stop.

Pete111

Liney - in essence yes, the payment date for PILON does not have to be the day of termination but employment will cease on that day.

Deam - glad thats cleared up but sorry they are enforcing the GL a bit churlish of the company in this climate IMHO.