90 day notice then wage cuts and temporary lay off within that time

manchestersaver

Hi today we have been given 90 day notice that we will no longer have a job.

I work in construction and have been employed by the company for nearly 7 years.

We were told that if our company picks up some new contracts and they pick us to stay on they will not pay us the rates we currently get but we have 3 options:

a)sign new contract to stay cards in but take a 10-15% reduction in our daily rate,or
b)go CIS4 and our rate will stay as it is but we will lose all rights to holiday pay/sick pay(which is only paid at statutory rate anyway),etc
c)We can apply for redundancy(which would also be statutory).

We were also told that the company will be looking to make temporary lay offs within this period,can they do this?If we are on notice that in 90 days our contracts are finished surely that's an end to it?

Also we were told that if we get put on temporary lay off after 4 weeks we can apply for our redundancy and this will be paid to us but they will not pay out notice pay.When asked what about the (in my case) 6 weeks notice pay we were told that we were serving our notice whilst on temporary lay off as we were still an employee of the company and still accuring holidays,etc

Can anyone help?

jazzyman01

If they have formally notified - in writing - you that your position will be redundant and that you are therefore working your notice, then I am afraid there is no notice period payment.

What is interesting is that they have told you there is no job. I can see no reference to any consultation in this statement. Is that the case? How many of you are affected by possible redundancy? If they have not followed the right process then, irrespective of whether they are giving notice now, they have failed to follow the fair process in regard to redundancy.

On a second point they must pay you for any accrued holiday pay.

manchestersaver

We have not had written confirmation of anything yet.
If they don't get anymore work we could be talking about 100 or so employees.
We had another meeting yesterday and the outcome was we are actually being placed on 2 different 90 day notices
The first being 90 day notice of pay cuts of between 10% and 20%(we are to be advised what cuts closer to the time as they are going to review everyone's rate separately).
The reason given for this is that the company is not competitive in pricing for new work and need to lower costs(ie wages).
The second is the redundancy (we were told this was a precautionary measure if they do not pick up any new work within the 90 days).
There has been no consultation period prior to being placed on either of these notices.We were told that consultation ran along side being put on the 90 day notice for redundancy.
I think that the way our company works they will probably put us on temporary lay off anyway once the 90 days are up,they are doing this now anyway and when people challenge that its not temporary they get told that new jobs are expected to start soon but they can ask for redundancy if they are not happy to remain on temporary lay off but they will not get service related redundancy only statutory redundancy.

jazzyman01

If you are not represented by union then you have the right to elect representatives to consult with the Company on the potential redundancy. If the company has not offered this and is really just giving notice that redundancies may happen, then they are not following a fair process. In effect they are just giving you notice that your job might go in 90 days.
If at the end of that time they do dismiss by reason of redundancy and pay you redundancy money but no notice pay, I think you would have a really good case to go to tribunal for the 90 day protective award. This would be 90 days at your normal rate of pay, not the capped redundancy figure.
If they elect just to reduce salary then, just before the end of the 90 days you can write to them stating that you have had no consultation in regard to the proposal to reduce your salary and as such reject the proposal until fair consultation has taken place.
Finally, I am unsure as to what you mean by the last sentence. Statutory redudancy is service related. The only issue is that the amount paid is capped at £380 per week so you would lose out if you earned more than that.
You will only get redundancy for completed years of service therefore you would, based on your original comment, get 6 x 380 ie £2280. This could be increased by a max of £1140 under the statutory rules depending on whether all or part of your service was over the age of 41. Of course the figure of £2280 reduced for each completed year of service under the age of 21.