Sackings rather than redundancies? 20 March 2020 at 1:26PM in Redundancy & redundancy planning 2 replies 261 views

Colorsplashed

Hi
My partner has just been told that he is likely to be sacked, along with other colleagues, due to the Coronavirus. He has built over ten years' service in his workplace, and we were thinking at worst they may make redundancies, but this is much much worse for us.
We are trying to get a copy of his contract, but he was TUPE'd a couple of years ago and apparently there is something in the contracts that allows for just laying people off in extreme times.
Clearly, we need to see the contract and get full information (they are making them wait and worry at the moment!), but really? This seems crazy that after putting in so much time and effort for his employers they are just going to sack him without any compensation? 
Does anyone know if there is anything we can do here, or where I should be looking? 
Thanks so much, and love to everyone who is having to deal with all this craziness...
Sam 

p00hsticks

Really sorry to hear this - you have my heartfelt sympathies.

Not much consolation, but there's a difference between being laid off and being sacked. A lay-off is usually temporary. There's an  ACAS guide here that it might help to read

https://archive.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=814

If you do mean that they are to be sacked rather than laid off, my understanding is that he should be entitled to redundancies.

The PM suggested yesterday that he would be announcing today some steps to help employers keep employees on during this time, so that might change the employers stance.

Colorsplashed

Thank you so much for your reply.
It looks like we're going to need to take legal advice for this one as his employer is not taking into account that his team were TUPE'd over on previous contracts. They seem to be claiming that everyone has a clause in their contract to allow them to dismiss them without pay (whether redundancy or otherwise), but they have been unable to produce a signed contract or updated terms to confirm. His HR department just tried to fob him off with a generic contract they literally just created. 
From what I understand they will have to pay him if they decide on lay offs (thanks very much for your link - really helpful!), and offer redundancy if they want to make it permanent. 
Announcing this on Friday afternoon and telling everyone it comes into place on Monday morning isn't helping us though!