Redundancy process being handled badly

daffodil17

On 14 August this year I will have been at this company for 17 years. We have two offices, one in the UK and one in Brussels. The UK office was set up first and is the Head Office. There are two staff in the UK (me and one other who has also been here 17 years and gone through a hell of a lot of changes like I have). The Brussels staff consists of one who's been here 1.5 months and the boss who has been here 8 months.

The powers that be have decided to close the UK office, and merge with the Brussels office. I have been offered my job in Belgium but do a) do not want to and b) would not wish to uproot my family and have been advised it would be unreasonable to expect me to do so.

I was told verbally on 17 January this year that the office would be closing. I was told this so that I could start to plan my future.

It was not however until 21 April that I first got anything in writing and even then it said nothing more than I already knew from the verbal meeting. However, this was deemed the start of 'the process'.

The lease on our office expires on 30 June. It its now 30 May and I have still not received my Notice of Redundancy. My contract says they need to give me 12 weeks notice.

I do not feel I can yet look for another job as I don't know when I'm actually free and don't want to mess anyone around. There is nowhere for me to work from 1 July - can they make me work from home? My house is very small and is a home. It is not set up for a work environment. I am a PA/Book-keeper.

My last contact was a letter dated 21 May which still said 'nothing has been decided' and yet I know from my colleague it will go ahead and besides, the lease is arranged to expire on the office. My contract says my place of work is at the office or "at the Employer's request, such other location as may be the Employer's premises from time to time." They can't me work in Brussels can they?

It is extremely stressful not knowing where I stand from 1 July and I have started to experience panic attacks. The new boss 'managing' all this (badly) is Belgian and can't get his head around the UK employment process because it's so different over there. I get the impression they are only planning to pay me the legal statutory minimum which I know is all they have to. However, I have taken on the work of 3 separate people who have left and not been replaced over the years and feel the legal minimum to be a right slap in the face.

On top of that, today I learn they are having telephone interviews for my replacement in Brussels - can they do that when I haven't received my Notice?

I get the feeling they want me to leave so they won't have to pay me redundancy, but however stressful this all is, that ain't going to happen. I have given blood, sweat and tears to this place. I am not walking away with nothing.

I hope I've got the situation across well.

Thank you for any advice/info you can provide.

ssparks2003

You can start job hunting whenever you want, you know your notice period so that is the longest that the new employer will have to wait. If you mean "I want to stick around for as long as possible to make sure that i get my payout" then sit on your hands and wait, you might be missing other opportunities whilst you wait for a payoff.

lincroft1710

Why is the UK office the head office, when the boss is based at the Belgium office?

Knowing your job was going to become redundant, you should have started looking in January. In your position I wouldn't have worried about loyalty to your current employer. You can be free whenever you want to be as long as you give your employer the required notice.

daffodil17

The company was incorporated in the UK in 1998 before there was even a Belgian office (in 2002), all the bosses were in the UK along with 20 staff. Over time the core activity has changed to be Brussels-focused (European institutions). The boss was always based in the UK until last year when the latest Chairman got this new guy on board and stuck him in Brussels.

As people have left the UK office or been made redundant (over 7 years ago), they have not been replaced and me and my UK colleague have taken on more and more of their work.

It's not about loyalty per se but with my length of service and my age, the legal minimum of statutory redundancy is a good amount of money for someone like me. Might be small fry to others but not to me when I don't earn that much anyway. Plus the workload over many years has been immense so this redundancy payout I feel I deserve for all the grief I've had here.

Perhaps I'm in a minority who think a payout of £10,500 tax-free small fry?

ssparks2003

The question you need to ask yourself is: would you prefer £10.5k in the bank but have to worry about finding a new job or would you prefer to have a job lined up that you can walk into which may or may not tie up with getting your payoff? I know what i would do, but that does not mean you have to do the same.

tacpot12

They can expect you to work from Brussels but they can't make you work from Brussels.

They can't make you use your home as their office. The terms of your contract require it to be "the employer's premises". It can't be your home.

£10k tax free is a lot of money. I would disagree with those who have said you should have started job hunting earlier; you need to know when you will be free to take a job.

Have you asked the boss where you will be working after 30th June? If they have said that nothing is decided about the office, you should remind them that you are entitled to 12 weeks notice (or pay in lieu of notice) and statutory redundancy pay, and travel expenses if the office is any distance away.

Have you got the contact details for the boss' boss? (The powers that be?)

Does the company have any assets in the U.K.?

daffodil17

Thank you for your comments.

The "powers that be" consist of a Dutch Chairman (let's call him the puppet-master) and the Belgian boss (the puppet aka. the Patsy).

There are assets in the UK but nothing significant (we are only a very small company) and I think the plan is to move everything to Brussels anyway, close down the UK company in due course and incorporate a new one in Brussels. As a trade association, our Members (customers) will then belong to the Belgian company as and when it's their renewal time (if they want to of course ... otherwise things could go badly wrong!). Neither the Chairman nor the Exec Director (boss) have a clue what they're doing. They've stuck a finger in the air how to make cost savings and without making any real calculations or costings, it seems to them closing the UK office will save a fair chunk of money - except we are already as clipped back as we can be after so many years of just two of us here. It costs more money to employ people in Belgium (Employers NI is a lot higher there as well as other taxes).

Indeed just yesterday I discovered they are interviewing for my replacement when I haven't received my Notice yet, and the indications in my most recent communications from them are vague about final decisions being made. I spoke to my solicitor about that who said that as I had been offered the job in Brussels but declined, then it was kind of OK that they interview, whilst pointing out it was 'not good practice' if I hadn't received my Notice letter.

The Exec Director is trying to 'follow the process' but without understanding what that process is without the help of a lawyer (more cost). They don't have redundancy in Belgium, you're just given notice and then you leave.

I guess at the end of the day, nothing is fair about redundancy. I am hurting that after nearly 17 of giving so much to this company, I am being treated very badly with this 'process'.

I am promised I will receive something this week but I've been promised my other two communications by a certain time and the promises have been broken.

I intend to follow-up tomorrow as it turns June - and with one month to go before the lease expires, with questions.

daffodil17

Update in case anyone is checking.

I finally got my Notice letter on Friday afternoon - four weeks left in the office then two months of garden leave. Paying the bare legal minimum. I have objected to that - after 17 years and a calculated £28,000 worth of overtime just since 2009 and have pointed out just how badly they have handled this. I am however hugely relieved to finally know where I stand.

lincroft1710

daffodil17 wrote: »

Paying the bare legal minimum.

Surely that is all they are obliged to do. Given the way this company has behaved over the past few years, do you honestly expect them to give you any more.