"Too expensive to get rid of"

bo_rai_cho

I've heard multiple times when redundancies happen that someone is too expensive to get rid of, they are often comments about members of staff who have 10-20+ years experience.

Is this because they have to pay 1 week redundancy for every year they have worked? Isn't there an upper limit to this amount anyway? Never understood this as surely their annual salary is more than this?

Or is it because people have negotiated better redundancy payments in their contracts? I don't know how this works in my current workplace because every non-director employee has the same redundancy contract.

tacpot12

There is an upper limit to the amount of statutory redundancy pay, but companies often pay more than the statutory amounts so they can create situations where long-serving employees can be very expensive to get rid off. Statutory redundancy pay is 1.5 weeks per year of employment when you are over 41, so older people do receive more redundancy pay.

However, there is so much ageism around that older workers are often chosen for redundancy, so hang in there and I'm sure they will select you at some point. Try not to make your excitement at being chosen too noticeable. I waited till I was outside the building to whoop for joy - my company made me redundant two months before I was going to retire; they announced the redundancies two weeks before the date I had decided I would tell my employer I was leaving (I was on three months notice).

getmore4less

The maximum statutory payout is £15,750, 30weeks capped at £525.

Takeaway_Addict

getmore4less wrote: »

The maximum statutory payout is £15,750, 30weeks capped at £525.

this adds up though over a number of employees- its easy to see why they'd take the cheaper option

TadleyBaggie

I had 15 years service and got paid 15 months plus 3 months PILON plus holidays. Cost them over £100K to get rid of me.

getmore4less

1 month full pay is at the very generous end and relatively low numbers of those made redundant get that much.

NBLondon

As said - some organisations have better than statutory terms in the contract so it will add up for long service. Where a private company has taken over a previous public sector operation they may have had to take on people who had better terms from the previous employment - and those people will hang on to those terms if they can.

Doshwaster

A few years ago I had been with my current employer for 13 years and was bored stupid but was just hanging around for a nice redundancy payout. When I just missed the cut for one round of job losses my boss told me that I was just too expensive to get rid of so they had let some more recent hires go instead.

In the end I couldn't wait any longer so walked away without any compensation. I think my MD was delighted to have saved on the redundancy money.