The Great 'What to do in the event of redundancy' Hunt

LEGSI1970

I have just been made redundant and got a new job at the same time. So what did I do well I bought a book called what colour is my parachute for job hunting and career tips. I worked out what my outgoings were and what salary I needed after taking into account of my redundancy. I started to network and send my cv. I got a new job paid off debt and put money into a cash isa for me and my husband. What you need to remember is your not redundant your job is to find a new job !

Maid_of_Kent_3

smithsw4 wrote:

8. Remember it's not binding unless you sign a compromise agreement, counter-signed by a practising and insured lawyer. Ask for the company to pay your legal fees.

!

QUOTE]

Not true.
A redundancy can be legitimate and upheld provided the employer has followed due and fair process. The compromise route is usually used where an employer wants to "dispose" of an employee either (a) without due reason, (b) where applying a selection criteria would not select the right person (c) where there has been a general falling out and face needs to be kept etc. In those instances, it is not a redundancy. It is an agreement between the two parties that the employment should be terminated. Normally the payment will compose of pay in lieu of notice, benefits during the nominal notice period and an ex gratia payment.

The crux of the compromise agreement is that the employee is signing away his/her right to claim unfair dismissal. Without going into too much detail, this can now no longer be a blanket disclaimer for any kind of unfair dismissal. TO be valid the agreement has to set out the potential claims the employee may have. The ex gratia payment is normally an amount to compensate for the employee signing away this right. The amount of the payment would normally reflect how nervous the employer is about the grounds of termination

puthsardarade

Hi,

I've just been made redundant today after I read this posting and I came back to read it again now!

I have a meeting to attend on Friday to discuss the usual - alternatives etc...and the company intends to serve notice on me with effect of 9th October. I've only been at the company since May 2006, so I can expect or demand anything more than the 4 weeks notice?

Should I seek legal advice from anywhere and would it be free?
Ideally I would really like to take someone into the meeting with me how is experienced - (a legal rep) or someone, to scare them and possible help my case?

Thanks in advance,
G

sweetmoneysaver

There's lots of good advice in all the posts. Well done for starting this topic off. Just over a year ago my whole department was shut down and I turned to this board for help and advice. There were only a small number of posts that I found and as it is an ever increasing problem it's great that this thread has been started! :T

Anyway, my first reaction was absolute dread. I had a young son and a husband who had gone through redundancy several times but had never been in the fortunate position of having a redundancy payment. I was lucky in the fact that my package was pretty good compared to the basic pay out. The first thing I did was look at internal jobs as the company has an obligation to try and avoid redundancy and find you another job. However, in reality there was not a great deal of help with redeployment. I updated my CV (read this book as it is excellent http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0706376129/ref=ord_cart_shr/026-9750102-1912422?%5Fencoding=UTF8). Then I planned my strategy of agencies, internal and external job posts. It is really hard to keep motivated but keeping some sort of routine really does help. In addition, take a good hard look at your finances. Take all the learnings from this site and check utilities, food bills and keep a spending diary to see what you really do spend! Also check http://www.entitledto.co.uk/ as that helped me see what I could get if the worst came to the worst and I lost my job. Don't forget about any mortgage payment insurance plans that you may have or similar income protection insurances. Most of all don't panic as that really does stop you thinking clearly.
In the end I managed to secure a temporary maternity cover role in the same company and after a lot of hard work, have got a permanent job again. However, redundancy is constantly occuring throughout the organisation so it will probably be a matter of time until I could be at risk again.
The best advice really is to turn to the board for help and get a statement of affairs (SOA) posted as that helps you see what is happening with your finances but also gives others the chance to help you. Do remember that redundancy can be the best thing that happens to someone and you may even get a better job. Change can be a good thing and should be viewed as an opportunity. Lots of people are not brave enough to take the first step to changing jobs and often this gives you the push you need.
For all of you in the unfortunate position of redundancy I hope it works out well. Although I survived, I still had bad memories about the whole experience but on the whole it has been a good thing.

sweetmoneysaver

One other thing that was really helpful was networking. I rang up all my old contacts within the company and outside of it. Often they know of jobs that come up before they get advertised. I went to talk to lots of departmental heads within the company (pride/dignity wasn't something that came into it). I also joined www.linkedin.com and got other colleagues to do the same. It is a great way of building up your contacts in a short space of time.

grey_lady

I was made redundent after several years in at job at the end of May - they hired someone else a couple of weeks before with the same job title and reporting to the same manager, but with several different duties (although some were in common with me) they decided to select one of us for redundency and kept him)

Anyway he has now resigned and they are readvertising the position (same job title with a few duties in common with what I was doing and several different ones)

Do I have any comeback? It all seems a bit unfair and I was really stressed over it all at the time. Not that Id want to go back now though.

cruicky_2

I recently retired from the police and 2 years prior to leaving I was given a talk by a financial adviser, one thing stood out and is oh so true, 'when you are employed you work for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours and socialise, shop or just live for 8hours. You only spend money during the latter.
When you retire you sleep for 8 hours and socilaise, shop and live for 16 hours. moral..... no income , double the outgoing!

Maid_of_Kent_3

gagandeeptiwana wrote:

Hi,

I've just been made redundant today after I read this posting and I came back to read it again now!

I have a meeting to attend on Friday to discuss the usual - alternatives etc...and the company intends to serve notice on me with effect of 9th October. I've only been at the company since May 2006, so I can expect or demand anything more than the 4 weeks notice?

Should I seek legal advice from anywhere and would it be free?
Ideally I would really like to take someone into the meeting with me how is experienced - (a legal rep) or someone, to scare them and possible help my case?

Thanks in advance,
G

The CAB will be able to give you advice or if you are a member of a union, they should be able to advise you.
Unfortunately for you, because you have such a short time of employment (less than 12 months) unless you have strong belief that the redundancy is not genuine and is only happening because of any of the potential discriminatory reasons (sex, race, belief, age, union membership, whistleblowing etc.) then you have no legal protection

Maid_of_Kent_3

Not sure how to contact any of the MSE head honchos direct, but if you want any input from someone who has extensive experience of redundancy - couple of time personally but more times than I care to remember being the person having to deliver and process the news, then I would be very glad to have an input into any article that is being written

I'm a qualified HR professional working at a senior level and would like to think that I have an up to date knowledge on the theoretical and practical application of redundancy procedures and what employees can do to help themselves. (Gamekeeper turned poacher to paraphrase a saying)

baldiemac30

i've been made redundant twice over the last five years, and so i'm quite used to the distress it causes (believe me, it never gets easier!)

My first piece of advice, is this: if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to sign onto the dole (sorry claiming "jobseekers allowance"), prepare yourself for a really humiliating experience. Sorry, but there's no other way to put it!! I personally would feel more comfortable walking through my town centre naked, than claiming JSA again! In a nut-shell, the governments unemployment figures are stated as "those in unemployment and claimung Job Seekers Allowance", (and the figures are usually falling), so the harder they make it for anyone to claim, the less they pay out, so the more their figures fall!!
They will want to know EVERYTHING about your bank accounts, your pay-off, your childrens savings, your shares, the equity in your home - EVERYTHING !!! in my case, i got nothing because my children had saving that i could live off - i'm being serious!! thats what they told me! So, in a nutshell LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH or HIDE any savings before you try to sign on.

Secondly, ALL of my loan protection insurances will now not pay out because im now a sub-contractor working on a LTD company basis. the loan companies still try to push them on me, but they only pay out if you are employed on a PAYE basis. be careful!!

thirdly, look at the redundancy as a fresh opportunity, and try to not let it grind you into the ground - especially if your out of work for a long time!!