Paid for consultation period?

drussmonkey

I was informed this week that I'm being made redundant. I'll be appealing this in due course but I wanted to ask a question in regards to the offer they've appeared to make in the letter.

It reads:

'We also discussed on the phone that an option might be to give you payment in lieu of notice. That would mean you would be paid for your 3 month notice period plus 1 month in addition to this for your redundancy consultation period on top of your redundancy payment. So 4 months of pay plus your redundancy payment if you choose to leave early and not work your notice period'.

The question here is - can they offer to pay me for my redundancy consultation period like this? Feels wrong to me - by offering a financial incentive to take the offer without working notice (and presumably not using the time to engage in any appeals process), they're trying to pay me off to limit my ability to take any action.

Can they do this? Thanks for any advice.

Mersey_2

Yes an employer can insist with PILON that an employee does not work their notice. Garden leave is quite common. As you rightly suggest, this won't prevent you from attending for any meetings/appeal along with (union) rep.

drussmonkey

Sorry I understand PILON here which would account for my three months notice, but my question was whether they could offer to pay me the extra month for the redundancy consultation period.

Surely I'm supposed to use this time to consider my options, and offering to pay me for it is it a bit of an underhand way to compel me not to?

Undervalued

An employer can only "pay you off" and exclude any legal claims from you by means of a settlement agreement (formerly a compromise agreement). For such an agreement to be valid you have to receive independent legal advice. No other "agreement", signed or otherwise, would prevent you making any valid legal claim.

One thing to keep in mind is that any redundancy payment (up to 30K) is tax free whereas any payment in lieu of notice is generally taxable just like your current salary.

getmore4less

It's an offer to leave early, don't like it don't take it.

Engage in consultation/negotiation and any appeal you want to try.

How many people are involved?

if only a few people 30 days may be quite generous(or the legal min for 20+) or if you can drag out the consultation not long enough.