No payout for redundancy.

lcharm

My friends mum works at a food factory that supplies packed foods to sainsbury's and other supermarkets. A customer made a serious complaint about the food and after investigation several other packs were found to have the same issue. The company is under investigation (result tomorrow) and everyone including his mum are at home now as the factory has been temporary closed. If the result is bad (which is likely), the factory has to close down and its their only one so I'm guessing theyd be winding up the company too.

They've told employees nobody will get any redundancy money and she's upset as she's been there for 20 years and probably won't be able to get work again, plus she doesn't speak much English.

Is this allowed?

lcharm

I've just realised this is in the wrong sub-board, can someone move it?

InsideInsurance

Are they saying they cannot afford to pay redundancy or something else?

Probably worth reading the following link and a few of its sub pages depending on the reasonings:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/employment/employees/pay/dg_10026695

If they are insolvent and cannot afford to pay then the National Insurance steps in to pay but it will be at the statutory level rather than anything more generous the employer may have offered

lcharm

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Are they saying they cannot afford to pay redundancy or something else?

I don't have enough details but it certainly looks that way. She'll find out tomorrow what the extact reason is. Communication is an issue as she doesn't speak English so my friend has to give me his interperetation of what's happened.

What I do know is there are lots of people that work in that factory in the same boat

lcharm

Just like to add, if they are going down the insolvency route, is it possible that the directors/owners could just beef up their salaries significantly just so that they can 'not afford' to pay redundancy? Or is that not possible for legal reasons?

Notmyrealname

They won't close down the factory. I've dealt a lot with food factories and they all have a run at least once with a fault in every single product on that line. It gets sorted and back to business as usual.

Judith_W

If they don't pay, there is a Govenrnment pot she can claim from.

lcharm

Notmyrealname wrote: »

They won't close down the factory. I've dealt a lot with food factories and they all have a run at least once with a fault in every single product on that line. It gets sorted and back to business as usual.

This is quite serious though, I think it's a metal object found in the food.

McKneff

They wouldnt close a factory down because a peice of metal was found in food.

Massive bouts of food poisoning, yes, I would agree.

Not really sure now whether we are feeding a troll to be honest.

If not, OP, you have sufficient answers to your query to pass on.

lcharm

McKneff wrote: »

They wouldnt close a factory down because a peice of metal was found in food.

Massive bouts of food poisoning, yes, I would agree.

Not really sure now whether we are feeding a troll to be honest.

If not, OP, you have sufficient answers to your query to pass on.

As mentioned in my OP, after a preliminary investigation, they'd discovered similar pieces in multiple items.

How do you work out whether you are feeding a troll or not? This is the 2nd time this accusation has happened to me in the past 2 months on MSE and it's a little irritating, I'm just helping a mate but thanks for your help, I've already passed this info on.

System

I am not talking about ethnicity. I am just astounded that somebody (regardless of race ,colour, creed, inside leg measurement) can spend 20 years in a country and not pick up the local language.

And unless they are now in their 70s then they were not inb the 'later stages of their life' when they started the job.