Redudancy?? please help

angelcake

My other half is a surveyor, he has been with a company for 5 years just recently they lost a contract my other half worked on. For the past 4 months his wages have been really poor so obv its slowly been dropped. Yesterday he had to go the office (stay overnight) ~ he was told of the loss of this contract, he had his suspicions before but his boss was never straight with him and making up reasons why his wages were low (i.e. the reports he had given in for invoicing has taken a backseat because they had a urgent contract to work on etc...)

His boss has arranged or is arranging an interview in another place, this place my other half used to work at 5 years ago and because of a dodgey employee we had to take them to a tribunal for his wages, which didn't go to court as my oh accepted a out of court payment (all we wanted was our wages)

So this other job isn't a guanteed walk-in and there is awkwardness there... the director who was also involved in the tribunal.

How does he stand with the original boss.. its all talk at this stage he hasn't been given anything in writing yet. He is obviously making him redundant.. so does he get redundancy pay?! Or My oh is thinking if he gives them a months notice so that way he is covered with a basic wage over christmas. He doesn't want it to be him leaving as its not his choice.... I don't know how it works, If his boss has arranged this job and he gets it does that mean because he has walked in another job then does it mean he won't get redundancy?! .... please bear with me if this isn't making too much sense I have been up with a poorly child all night so trying to understand where he stands. Thank you for reading

Emmzi

why is the boss arranging an interview elsewhere? Is it because that is where the contract went? If so it's a TUPE situation and interviews donlt come into it.

Most odd!

heretolearn_2

Can we clarify a couple of things. You say your husband is an employee, but then there's a bit of a confusing statement about his handing in invoices adn the fact that he has earned less due to having less work. Is he really an employee? Or is he a contractor/self employed. If he invoices the company according for the work he has done, then he is self employed, and redundancy only applies to employees.

If he is an employee though and I was just getting confused, then if the firm wants to let him go as they no longer need him, then they have to do a redundancy, and there are statutory entitlements to redundancy payments.

I don't understand why his boss has fixed him up with an interview with another company, unless as someone else said, it's some sort of TUPE situation (has the contract for the job he works on been transferred from his current company to the new one?) but then there isn't a need for an interview. If his boss is just trying to get rid of him by fixing him up with another job, so he resigns, that is not acceptable as it's just a way to avoid making redundancy payments.

angelcake

heretolearn wrote: »

Can we clarify a couple of things. You say your husband is an employee, but then there's a bit of a confusing statement about his handing in invoices adn the fact that he has earned less due to having less work. Is he really an employee? Or is he a contractor/self employed. If he invoices the company according for the work he has done, then he is self employed, and redundancy only applies to employees.

If he is an employee though and I was just getting confused, then if the firm wants to let him go as they no longer need him, then they have to do a redundancy, and there are statutory entitlements to redundancy payments.

I don't understand why his boss has fixed him up with an interview with another company, unless as someone else said, it's some sort of TUPE situation (has the contract for the job he works on been transferred from his current company to the new one?) but then there isn't a need for an interview. If his boss is just trying to get rid of him by fixing him up with another job, so he resigns, that is not acceptable as it's just a way to avoid making redundancy payments.

sorry I literally have had no sleep and was trying to get it all out of my head. He is a surveyor, so he does the work, comes home makes up the report, sends the report to the office who invoice the client for the work. He is a direct employee, the reports are a commission as he gets a basic wage. The reports are for us that pay the bills as the basic is low.

The contract that the employer has lost is the one My oh was working on. They lost that contract as it went out to tender and another company got it. This other company has asked oh's employer if they could have their surveyors if there is no work in this area from them... so thats how the situation has come about him getting an interview for them, the person interviewing oh is the one who oh trained up when he was working there although thats not relevant it may be a good thing as they always got on..

The company he is in uses the other company's lab for testing.. so thats how they all know each other.

So do you think that his boss is trying to get out of redundancy pay by setting up this new job and 'keeping oh happy' The other surveyor has already gone over to them but he has only been with this company for 4 months so he is happy.

Really sorry if this is confusing I am trying to understand it myself

what if he doesn't get this other job because of the problems before...

Basically.. whats his best option given its this time of year, we have 3 children and have been on the basic wage for the last few months. Would it be to accept the redundancy or say he will work his contracted month notice. He is wondering where he stands if the boss has set up another job for him would it jeapordise redundancy pay.

getmore4less

Look like they should be looking to see if TUPE transfers are applicable.

angelcake

I hadn't heard of TUPE so googled it. I still don't fully understand what does it mean please?

The 2 companies aren't in any way attached other then the company he is in uses the other company to get labs analysed as there isn't another one that specialises in this where they are based.. sorry its confusing, I have asked oh to call me when he gets a minute so I can explain this TUPE thing. He is literally in the office today

SarEl

The companies became "attached" when one won the others contracts. There are no options here - the employees who work on the contract that was won must be TUPE'd to the employer that won the contracts, and there is nothing to discuss as far as I can see, just laws that must be follwoed by both employers. I suggest that you do a great deal more reading about TUPE - from what you have said here it certainly applied to your husband. He is not redundant and must be TUPE'd

angelcake

the contract changed so the companies are not attached in any way. As it was put out to tender as a different contract. Therefore he has been made redundant. I have just spoken to him and they have tried to do it via TUPE but its not possible due to the explained above.

He has an interview with the other company on monday. Seriously could do without this stress just before christmas and with poorly kiddies! He is on his way home tonight so will know more. Thank you for your help, his father has also called ACAS to see if he can find out more.

SarEl

angelcake wrote: »

the contract changed so the companies are not attached in any way. As it was put out to tender as a different contract. Therefore he has been made redundant. I have just spoken to him and they have tried to do it via TUPE but its not possible due to the explained above.
.

If it were that easy to avoid TUPE then there would be no TUPE. The presumption is in favour of a TUPE existing and the employer has to prove it doesn't. On that argument alone it won't convince a tribunal.

angelcake

His boss has already told him that the TUPE is not an option for him at all because its not a contract handover the contract was lost and a totally different contract was put out to tender

His boss is counting on him getting this other job and leaving because he doesn't want to pay him his redundancy money...

SarEl

I am sorry, but this stinks to high heaven. He is either redundant or he has a TUPE. The other job is irrelevant. get some legal advice - and I do mean legal advice. YOu should be able to get a free session at least initially. ACAS can't help you - they are useless at the best of times and this is too complex for them - and too complex for advice on a site like this. You really do need legal advice.