Would this be a redundancy?

Person_one

I work for a small organization and its pretty impossible to keep anything secret! I have been made aware that I will probably not have a job here beyond the end of the financial year, I am the only person who performs my role and there are no plans to hire anyone else to take over, they will probably outsource what I do.

Does this count as a redundancy? Would I be entitled to the statutory redundancy payout? This would be less than £1000 but would cover my mortgage for a couple of months!

Also, what period of notice do they have to give me? A co-worker thinks 3 months but if that's the case then they're already too late to have me out by the end of March.

Thanks for any help.

hairy_g

Depends on length of service and age.
visit the acas website.

Person_one

I've had a look at ACAS and direct.gov, if it was classed as a redundancy then my age and length of service would mean I'd get about 19 days statutory redundancy pay I think!

I'm just wondering if this would definitely be classed as a 'redundancy'. It seems to fit this definition:

"the requirements of the business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind has ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish" (ACAS site)

However my employer isn't always great at doing things by the book or professionally! I've looked through the policies and procedures and there isn't even a redundancies procedure in place! I need to fish out my contract I think, I can definitely see that I might have to be firm in sticking up for myself.

Person_one

Ok, so it appears I don't have a contract! There's the one I signed when I was originally employed but another member of staff has informed me that this is no longer valid as details about the employer have changed (sounded a bit dodgy to me!)

Will no contract affect my entitlement to redundancy pay?

negg

Will no contract affect my entitlement to redundancy pay?

Shouldn't make any difference. The employer has to follow the law regardless of whether they have given you a contract or not.

Badger_Lady

It should be redundancy if they let you completely... but I have a feeling they might be able to just offer you am "equivalent" (role could be completely different) job instead...

p00hsticks

Person_one wrote: »

Ok, so it appears I don't have a contract!

You DO have a contract - it's just that it doesn't appear to be in writing. In the absence of any redundancy terms specific to the comany, the statutary rules regarding notice, pay etc will apply.

Person_one

Badger_Lady wrote: »

It should be redundancy if they let you completely... but I have a feeling they might be able to just offer you am "equivalent" (role could be completely different) job instead...

I don't think they'll do that. it really is a tiny org, less than 10 staff each doing a specialised role. Also, I'm fairly sure that it won't even have occurred to them that this would be a redundancy and there are rules to follow. They're far more likely to ignore them than to try and work around them!

Basically, I think I'm going to have to ask for what I'm entitled to and it won't be pleasant so I want to make sure I'm in the right before risking my reference!

p00hsticks

Person_one wrote: »

Also, I'm fairly sure that it won't even have occurred to them that this would be a redundancy and there are rules to follow.

If not a redundancy, then how do you think they're going to deal with it - just stop paying you and then hope that you get the message and stop coming into work ?

Exactly how have you 'been made aware that I will probably not have a job here beyond the end of the financial year' ? Has someone told you this officially, or is just something you've deduced, overheard or has been mentioned in passing ?

Person_one

p00hsticks wrote: »

If not a redundancy, then how do you think they're going to deal with it - just stop paying you and then hope that you get the message and stop coming into work ?

Exactly how have you 'been made aware that I will probably not have a job here beyond the end of the financial year' ? Has someone told you this officially, or is just something you've deduced, overheard or has been mentioned in passing ?

I imagine they'll deal with it the same way they did with another employee last year, give me a months notice and then stop paying me after that. There is something in my original contract (which is supposedly no longer valid) about 'termination of contract' which states they can end my employment with just a month's notice but I'm on a permanent contract and there are no other grounds beside wanting to save money on the work I do.

I don't want to go into details of how I know, but like I said, this is a tiny place and there are no secrets. I trust the information.