Redundancy and retention payment

boltonangel

Hi

We are due to be made redundant in a few months time and as the company want to retain as many people as possible until the end are giving us a retention payment.

My question may appear greedy but I don't mean it to be (I'm not getting redundancy as I will be 2 days short of my 2 years service.)

I'm off sick at the moment and don't think I'll be back in work so have been told that I won't get any retention as I'm not actually working, which sounds fine but I've been thinking recently that this is unfair because they're penalising people who can't work to earn payment , like those on sick or maternity leave.

getmore4less

Get the writen terms of the retention bonus, and make sure it is clear what the qualifying conditions are.

They may have said people that are not working any of the time will not get it but what about those that are working now but take 1 days sick or 2 etc. it might be they end up getting the terms such tht you only need to go back for a short period to qualify.

Your main focus needs to be finding a new job.

as for discrimination thereseems to be a few comments on various sites if you
google : retention bonus discrimination maternity
pulls up a few examples here is one, do same for sick

http://natemplaw.co.uk/portfolio/bonus-discrimination/

zzzLazyDaisy

The retention payment is a bonus to reward people who continue to work until the end.

As you have less than two years service, they can make you redundant earlier, by giving you one week's notice (or whatever it says in your contract, if more).

They are under no obligation at all to pay a retention bonus, and even if they do, they can choose to pay it to some and not others, provided the reason for treating differently does not amount to unlawful discrimination (age, sex, race, disability).

If the reason for your absence from work related to a disability, you may have grounds for complaint, but even then I am not convinced that you would be successful.