Redundancy - contract not terminated for 3 months - garden leave

[Deleted User]

Company is going through redundancies. If made redundant, they'll let you leave immediately, but wont terminate your contract until the entire process is finished (possibly end May). During that time, you'll be on garden leave and then get your final PILON and ex-gratia payment at the end.

So, striclty speaking, you're still employed for that time. What happens if you get another job in the meantime? Is the company able or likely to stop you working for someone else while still employed?

lucylucky

Short answer - yes.

You are still employed so if you want to work for another company you can resign.

There are some companies though who "may" let you go, cut short the gardening leave and still let you have redundancy

Gordon_Hose

If you are on Gardening Leave you are still employed by the company you work for. If you find a job and resign/leave you won't be entitled to anything.

However, you can have a word with your employers and ask nicely if they'll let you leave early with full redundancy payment if you find alternative employment.

getmore4less

This get complicated.

First ask for any "can't work for someone else" clauses to be waived

This will alow you to get fill in work as a second job, do volunteer work etc.

The main problem with any new proper job, is that they will also likely have similar clauses AND your current employer will have first dibs on yur time so could call you back in off garden leave.


There is also something known as counter notice that can result in redundancy payments still being due, but the company could stop pay for garden leave and PILON.

Could ask for a comprimise agreement(CA) to be able to leave immediately or after April 5th to get into the next tax year.


would be better to have all the posts in a single thread to keep all relevent info in one place.

[Deleted User]

getmore4less wrote: »

This get complicated.

First ask for any "can't work for someone else" clauses to be waived

This will alow you to get fill in work as a second job, do volunteer work etc.

The main problem with any new proper job, is that they will also likely have similar clauses AND your current employer will have first dibs on yur time so could call you back in off garden leave.


There is also something known as counter notice that can result in redundancy payments still being due, but the company could stop pay for garden leave and PILON.

Could ask for a comprimise agreement(CA) to be able to leave immediately or after April 5th to get into the next tax year.


would be better to have all the posts in a single thread to keep all relevent info in one place.

Bummer. Just found out company wont allow you to get another job whilst on garden leave because you must be availabe to come back into office if needed.

Gordon_Hose

Same thing happened to me 2 years ago. Got put on Gardening Leave, after a few weeks they couldn't cope with the work and got me in once a week, eventually they retracted the redundancy.

Not so lucky this time around though lol

[Deleted User]

Im guessing most new employers wont wait three months?

I'm going to be in the same situation if I ever plan to leave in the future of my own free will because I'm on a 3 month contract...

getmore4less

[quote=[Deleted User];40594660]Im guessing most new employers wont wait three months?

I'm going to be in the same situation if I ever plan to leave in the future of my own free will because I'm on a 3 month contract...[/QUOTE]


Most will acept minimum of one month often 3 months s not uncmon for some posts.

If you started looking today the process could take over a month, interview offer references etc.

[Deleted User]

getmore4less wrote: »

Most will acept minimum of one month often 3 months s not uncmon for some posts.

If you started looking today the process could take over a month, interview offer references etc.

This is true...

movilogo

Legally you can't work for other employer while you are on garden leave.

If you do, you should then resign from current employer. However this means you will probably lose redundancy benefits (as it will be deemed you resigned rather made redundant).

Start looking for job. It may take a while to get another employment, in which case your problem will be irrelevant.

However, if you get something too good, see if you can defer it by some time so that even if any overlapping occurs it is only for last month/last few weeks.

Your current employer will not know about your new employment (if you find any) BUT, HMRC tax office may ask your current employer to deduct more tax if they think that is your 2nd job or so.

Also when someone will ask for reference in future, you may have to explain why there were overlapping employment dates (although it should not be any big issue in reality).

PS: If you find any new job, think again whether you like to inform your current employer. They may be very interested to get rid of you without paying full redundancy benefit. If it is a big company, they will not change their policy for just 1-2 employees.

[Deleted User]

movilogo wrote: »

Legally you can't work for other employer while you are on garden leave.

If you do, you should then resign from current employer. However this means you will probably lose redundancy benefits (as it will be deemed you resigned rather made redundant).

Start looking for job. It may take a while to get another employment, in which case your problem will be irrelevant.

However, if you get something too good, see if you can defer it by some time so that even if any overlapping occurs it is only for last month/last few weeks.

Your current employer will not know about your new employment (if you find any) BUT, HMRC tax office may ask your current employer to deduct more tax if they think that is your 2nd job or so.

Also when someone will ask for reference in future, you may have to explain why there were overlapping employment dates (although it should not be any big issue in reality).

PS: If you find any new job, think again whether you like to inform your current employer. They may be very interested to get rid of you without paying full redundancy benefit. If it is a big company, they will not change their policy for just 1-2 employees.

I'm hoping that in reality they might be a bit more flexible and that no you cant start whilst on garden leave is just the official line.

Its a large multi-national company so I dont think they'd bother with penny pinching or trying to save a few quid on just my redundancy money.