Friend told 16hrs or redundancy-Not sure what to do.

buel

Hi,
my friend has worked at the same hair dressers since 2005 (started as an apprentice) and has always been on minimum wage, currently £6.07.
He has been offered redundancy or 16 hours per week.
If he chose redundancy, this wouldn't be classed as voluntary redundancy would it?

Jarndyce

No.

What hours does he work currently? Assuming he is full time (eg c 35 hours pw) then he is safe to reject the cut in hours and accept redundancy as it would clearly not be suitable alternative employment.

CKhalvashi

When cutting staff hours, it has always been in smaller chunks than this, which would lead me to think that it’s not suitable alternative.

I’d get him to take the redundancy if he feels that there would be a suitable opportunity to get back into work quickly.

CK

buel

Thanks for that.
He was doing 35 hours per week.

My friend was told that the 16 hours could increase if the work gets busier.

Would choosing the 16hour option affect any future redundancy pay?

McKneff

If in a short while they were made redundancy they would be paid it on the 16 hours and not the full time hours.

No brainer really.

Jarndyce

buel wrote: »

Thanks for that.
He was doing 35 hours per week. I have a hunch the redundancy was bought on to 'help' another employee leave, which she has done.
My friend was told that the 16 hours could increase if the work gets busier.

Would choosing the 16hour option affect any future redundancy pay?

Er, yes - it would be a permanent change to their contract and it would be the new lower weekly wage upon which they would have any future redundancy pay calculated.

buel

Thank you for your help.

The issue he has is that getting a full time job in his chosen field of work is not easy and he may struggle to find something straight away. For that reason I thought it would be better that he took the 16 hours and hoped that he would be able to receive some support in helping to pay his rent until he finds another job or takes on an extra part time job to supplement his income.

After reading a little bit on the Turn2Us website I notice they separate the 1-15 and 16-29 hours. I am just wondering would there be any advantage to asking for 15 hours instead of 16, I know it seems a weird thing to ask as he wants more hours but if that one hour of work is going to take him over the threshold for entitlements I wondered if there would be any benefit to dropping that hour? I have been through the steps and it seems it would only make a difference by about £5 so obviously that would not be worth it but I wondered if the difference between working 15 and 16 hours would affect anything else?

buel

Bumpy Bump!

Reverbe

i think your benefits get dropped if you work at all.. assuming this is still under 16 hrs per week I think you get a reduced JSA rate. my hours have been cut to 10-13 with a possibility of it being reduced after Mothers day to a possible FIVE..so am currently trying to get benefits to make up my income enough to actually eat