Lied to at a redundancy meeting

prowla

Ballard wrote: »

Thanks for your reply but you're barking up the wrong tree with this one for a number of reasons:

1. All of the items listed form part of the salary. The payment was solely redundancy.
2. We were in month one of the holiday year when he left. I've got a feeling that he was actually 'overdrawn' for 2014 and owed a day or two anyway.
3. He worked his notice.
4. Pension & medical insurance are paid direct to the companies concerned and not to the staff member.

OK; yes I don't know all of the details, so just giving things which could be done as a payment (eg. if the company terminated its medical insurance contract, they would have to make good the contributions).

The government has links which detail the process and entitlements and what is/isn't taxable.

Good luck in working it out.

(On a final note, the HR person may not have been lying; they may just not have known the full facts and/or been particularly competent, so do check all of your entitlement.)

Ballard

prowla wrote: »

OK; yes I don't know all of the details, so just giving things which could be done as a payment (eg. if the company terminated its medical insurance contract, they would have to make good the contributions).

The government has links which detail the process and entitlements and what is/isn't taxable.

Good luck in working it out.

(On a final note, the HR person may not have been lying; they may just not have known the full facts and/or been particularly competent, so do check all of your entitlement.)

Thanks. I do appreciate that you didn't know all of the facts and so your reply was welcomed.

I had been away for three weeks and by the time I'd had my first meeting some people (including the one in question) had already signed their settlement agreement. HR were well aware of all of the facts. She was only there to take notes and did not say anything at all. She has no HR history and although I quite like her she isn't great at her job and is little more than a mouthpiece for management.

I had been told by several people that things said in their meetings were later denied and so was quite proud of my idea to record my meeting on my phone. I should reiterate that I asked permission and left the phone on the table throughout. It's not going to get me anywhere with this but I do have proof that I was lied to so at least I don't think that I'm losing my marbles!

The sad thing is that the branch was making in excess of £1m per year (well in excess for 2014) but head office took the decision to concentrate on their domestic market. They obviously came to the conclusion that there's no need to pay more than the bare minimum because they no longer need good will from the UK employees.

getmore4less

Ballard wrote: »

The sad thing is that the branch was making in excess of £1m per year (well in excess for 2014) but head office took the decision to concentrate on their domestic market. They obviously came to the conclusion that there's no need to pay more than the bare minimum because they no longer need good will from the UK employees.

Rather than focusing on a couple of lies I would be looking at how I capture that market.

Ballard

getmore4less wrote: »

Rather than focusing on a couple of lies I would be looking at how I capture that market.

I'm not in a position to say what line of work I'm in but trust me when I tell you that I'm not in a position to set up a similar business.

getmore4less

Ballard wrote: »

I'm not in a position to say what line of work I'm in but trust me when I tell you that I'm not in a position to set up a similar business.

Not even if all the team allready doing it are on board?

Ballard

getmore4less wrote: »

Not even if all the team allready doing it are on board?

No. It would take many years and A LOT of funding to get started in this business. We would be bankrupt within months. I can't go into detail so you'll have to trust me on this (I tried to PM you but it won't let me as your inbox is full).

MoneyMission2015

Apologies if this has already been asked, but what exactly are you aiming to get out of this? There is little you can do even if you prove they lied. Ok you could walk out now but then you lose your retention bonus. Will you really gain anything by confronting them about this 'lie'. It was probably because they too are not allowed to discuss it because of the terms set in the settlement agreement. Unless they've actually done something illegal in terms of your redundancy then I don't see what you will gain from this.

If I have missed something fundamental then I apologise but from what I read you're getting your statutory redundancy entitlement, they've followed correct procedures in respect of consultation periods, meetings, notice periods etc.

Ballard

MoneyMission2015 wrote: »

Apologies if this has already been asked, but what exactly are you aiming to get out of this? There is little you can do even if you prove they lied. Ok you could walk out now but then you lose your retention bonus. Will you really gain anything by confronting them about this 'lie'. It was probably because they too are not allowed to discuss it because of the terms set in the settlement agreement. Unless they've actually done something illegal in terms of your redundancy then I don't see what you will gain from this.

If I have missed something fundamental then I apologise but from what I read you're getting your statutory redundancy entitlement, they've followed correct procedures in respect of consultation periods, meetings, notice periods etc.

That's a good question. I accepted the settlement agreement on the basis of everything that was discussed in the meeting. A major factor is that no one was getting more than the statutory amount. I now find that someone who has already left received a similar net amount to me as theirs is completely tax free. I would ideally like them to increase my settlement but fully accept that that's very unlikely to happen.

When I asked what I would get if I was to leave immediately I was told that just the statutory amount and that everyone else was getting this settlement. My employer can give everyone a different settlement, that's their prerogative. What they can't do is blatantly lie to me. At no point did I ask what any individual was getting as that's absolutely none of my business.

Realistically I'm aiming to annoy them if I'm honest. There's a small chance that they'll serve me notice and I'll leave after a month but that would suit me as it's not a pleasant place to work any more and I'd be entitled to my full retention bonus. I don't see that they'd have any reason to sack me.

bargainbetty

You do not have the right to know what everyone else is getting. The HR person told you that everyone was getting the staturoty minimum, and that appears to be true, although others may have negotiated something more. A settement agreement is not completed under the same terms as a redundancy agreement, and it is possible that your colleague had other employment issues that you were not aware of, nor do you have any right to be notified of them.

The employee may have been offered something to rescind rights to commission - you don't know the full facts, and the HR person was under no obligation to advise you of them. It is none of your business.

Ultimately, if you aren't happy, go back to them and renegotiate, but understand that if you try to use information about other agreements, even if obtained in the general course of your work, you may well be subject to disciplinary measures for misuse of confidential information.

getmore4less

Ballard wrote: »

That's a good question. I accepted the settlement agreement on the basis of everything that was discussed in the meeting. A major factor is that no one was getting more than the statutory amount. I now find that someone who has already left received a similar net amount to me as theirs is completely tax free. I would ideally like them to increase my settlement but fully accept that that's very unlikely to happen.

When I asked what I would get if I was to leave immediately I was told that just the statutory amount and that everyone else was getting this settlement. My employer can give everyone a different settlement, that's their prerogative. What they can't do is blatantly lie to me. At no point did I ask what any individual was getting as that's absolutely none of my business.

Realistically I'm aiming to annoy them if I'm honest. There's a small chance that they'll serve me notice and I'll leave after a month but that would suit me as it's not a pleasant place to work any more and I'd be entitled to my full retention bonus. I don't see that they'd have any reason to sack me.

They can and there is nothing you can do about it.