redundancy and 23 months of service

brians_daughter

Hi i am after some advice for a family member. We have searched but with no joy, and cant get through to acas.

They have been told in the last 2 weeks been told by his manager that there are to be redundancies in the immediate future. He started with the company 3rd Dec 2007. So has just under 2 years service. They only get stat redundancy pay anyway, but every penny counts.

They have entered into the consultative period, and the people who are to be made redundant will be announced Tuesday 1st December.

My question lies with the following. If he is one of the ones who will be made redundant (which is the most likely outcome) I know he needs 2 years service to get any for of redundancy pay.. but with the date being so close to 2 years do they have to give notice etc? Ie Can they say hes redundant from the 1st, so gets no stat red pay, or should they give him notice - therefore taking him over 2 years service?

I am aware that from direct gov website it states at least 1 weeks notice or payment in leiu of notice... does this mean on the 1st they will either have to give him minimum 1 weeks notice (taking him over 2 years) or pay him for that week- therefore he hasnt been employed 2 years?

Sorry if its sounding confussing but i really dont understand it all

Thanks in advance

Pete111

Do you know if the actual termination date (rather than the announcement date) will be the 1st Dec? If it is the 3rd Dec or later then he has the redudancy pay in the bag as 2 years will have been served. If not and the 1st Dec is the last day I believe the 1 weeks statutory notice he is entitled to may potentially enable the redundancy pay to be claimed.

From a case I was involved with with some years ago, I was advised by an employment lawyer that whilst we were able to contract out (by paying money in leiu of notice) of considering that an employees service ran until the end of their 'contractual' notice period (which was 3 months in that instance) we had to legally consider their service running to the end of their 'statutory notice' (which was 2 weeks) for the purposes of accruing an extra years worth of redundancy pay.

If this was in fact correct advice and no case law has changed this stance since then (2004/5 I think) he could claim the redundancy pay even if he was terminated on the 1st as the weeks statutory notice period 'casts a shadow' forward past the relevant two year point.

Very happy to be corrected tho!

jazzyman01

Would agree with Pete111. It would look too convenient to terminate a couple of days prior to the 2 years service when notice would take you over that period.