Working for associated company after redundancy

JuScott

Hi, quick-ish query! I was made redundant 5 weeks ago and have been offered a job at a different company owned by one of my previous directors. As my redundancy claim has still not been processed (my previous employers are in liquidation so I am claiming from government), I am unsure whether working for the other company will affect this? I have been told that after 4 weeks I should be ok, but then after speaking to the redundancy helpline, they said it actually might affect my claim. Does anyone know how this actually works?? Thanks:j

londondulwich

This might be a transfer of undertakings protection of employment (TUPE) scenario.

Things to look for are:

Have you been asked to do your old job?

Are you going to be doing it in the same place for the same customers?

Are other colleagues being invited back as well?

If this is the case it could be argued that the reason for your dismissal/ redundancy was to avoid TUPE regulations. This would give you a claim for automatic unfair dismissal.

If an employment tribunal come to this conclusion you could claim the basic award from the redundancy payments office as well as any holiday, notice and unpaid wages.

The basic award is calculated in the same way as a redundancy payment. The only difference is that, in an automaticallly unfair situation, the basic award must use the equivalent of 4 weeks wages as a minimum.