Redundancy is coming...

sammy66

My husband is a plumber for a maintenance company and since christmas work has declined, he is lucky now if he works 3 out of 5 days. I say he is making it too easy for his employer to be slack with him, as he has been finding his own work for the days his boss has said there is no work for him but now even that has dried up. It's not just my hobby who has been on short time another couple of lads (plasterer and electrician too) but a guy who does everything has been given overtime doing painting and labouring jobs! Surley this is not right. My hubby is going to speak with the boss tomorrow and say he can no longer carry on working short hours, but he's worried that if he's made redundant, his boss would shut the company down rather than pay any redundancy, as he has previous for this. Before my hubby started working for him, this guy made a lad redundant and when the lad took him to a tribunal for redundancy, the boss turned up with 3 other employees as witnesses to say, he had sacked him due to gross misconduct and did'nt make him redundant, so ended up not paying the lad any money!

We just wondered where my husband stands on this? We have a mortgage to pay like everyone else, so I am now frantically searching for extra work too

jamesd

Maybe he'd like some of the painting and labouring work to help keep up his income while times are tight? May not be work he really wants but if he can do it, it's better than redundancy.

sammy66

Exactly Jamesd, he would of gladly done the paining/labouring but was never given the option, the other guy got it as overtime

getmore4less

What does the contract say about hours?

cloudwalker_3

The employer sounds like a really nasty bit of work (especially the bit where you wrote, "...this guy made a lad redundant and when the lad took him to a tribunal for redundancy, the boss turned up with 3 other employees as witnesses to say, he had sacked him due to gross misconduct and did'nt make him redundant, so ended up not paying the lad any money")

Personally I'd use the time that he's off to do a few things.

1. I'd sort my CV out get it fully up to date and start applying for other work with other maintenance companies.

2. I'd also make sure that my CV is registered on every online job site out there. On top of this, I'd also get it in front of agencies like Manpower who source craft based labour.

3. I might also start considering doing some self-employed work. Put an advert into yellow pages/yell.com and network like mad with everyone and anyone he knows and it might bring in some interim money if nothing else.

Ultimately, when I was made redundant a few years back, the expereince drove me to finally reaslise that I was sick to death of working for other people.

Some nine years later I do a mixture of contract and ad hoc work. At times it's a little scary, because as it's working for myself there are fat times and lean times but in terms of my job satisfaction, quality of life and overall happiness, I'd never go back.

sammy66

I think thats what he is going to start doing Cloudwalker. No contract unfortunatley.

getmore4less

There is a contract just may not be writen

What was the agreement on hours when he started.

to vary hours it need to be agreed, layoff terms may apply which include payments, illegal deduction may be another option.

Given the employers previous actions finding another job may the prudent approach

Why not set up in competition?

jamesd

Maybe the other guy was asking or pestering the boss saying he needed money. That's not something that only one person can do.

sammy66

37 hours was agreed, he's now taken a weeks holiday just so we dont loose any more money and we are seriously considering him going self employed, we have been looking at sites like 'my builder.com' and there are lots of jobs listed on there he can do, we have also ordered some business cards as well.

getmore4less

depends how far you want to push.
Lay off is probably considered a standard in the building industry so you could look at how this should be done and what pay is due and how you can try for redundancy.

Have a read of
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Temporarylayoff/DG_10026693

sammy66

Yes been reading that thanks Getmore4less, just not sure if because he doesnt have a contract does it still apply that he should still get full pay, ? If it continues for the next few weeks then he will be able to go for the 6 weeks in 13 week period, then ask for redundancy once the 13 week period is up?