Redundancy

beckseven

Hi I was made redundant a couple of months ago. I was offered a 3 month secondment in another department and went from working at home 2 days a week for 6 weeks and then 6 weeks at home whilst working night shifts to working full time at the office which is a 2 hour round trip due to bad traffic. to be brief-basically I'm at breaking point-i have two young children, have had to employ a childminder on top of my normal childcare for my youngest, my husbands business is suffering due to me being out of the house for 11-12 hours a day as is our relationship and my health. Basically 6 weeks in I just want to take my redundancy and leave. I've signed an amendment to contract of employment and have an end date 6 weeks away but that I can take my redundancy at the end of the period. Do you think that I can leave before this period is over (and still get my redundancy!) Many thanks

wintergirl

I am not up on employment law - perhaps someone else will come along with more knowledge then me soon.
My gut reaction to your story is to go back to your employers and explain the situation you are in. Agreed you signed up for the new temp contract, but with the circumstances being so different to how you were orginally employed, if they are descent employers, they should understand and allow you to go early, and not penalise you.

dottodot

I'd agree with Wintergirl - not sure of the legal position but worth having a talk to them and see if they're willing to be flexible. If they're going to have to pay you redundancy now or in 6 weeks time, it may not make any difference to them.

I think that when people are redeployed as an alternative to redundancy, there is usually a 'trial' period of 1 or 2 months which gives them the opportunity to try it and say if they don't feel its a suitable alternative - its possible that the same sort of principal could apply in your situation?

Good luck

Steve1968_2

Absolutely agree with the previous two posters. Just talk to your employer and assuming they are reasonable there is no legal reason you should be able to vary your contract and take redundancy sooner.

The only additional point I'd make is to consider whether this new role could, in any way, be altered to remove the difficulties you are experiencing. If you could make suggestions on how your employer could change the new role to allow more working from home that could lead to a happy conclusion for both sides in the best case or a faster redundancy in the worst. Obvious suggestions are remote working/reduced hours etc