Voluntary Redundancy - Accepted but deadline passed

gitaaotaku

Hi everyone,

I work for a large educational establishment who have offered voluntary redundancy twice in the last 12 months now. First time was in March 2019 and then again in December 2019. We went through a merger (aka complete takeover) last August and the new owners are starting to turn the screw now, making us sign new contracts, adjusting when we can take annual leave, giving us additional sites to work at, the usual. My particular department (I'm an IT Engineer) hasn't had a restructure yet but we have heard that it is looming. I've been wanting to leave for a little while now due to wanting to start my own business and I did put my name down for VR in the last December window. It was accepted and I've worked at the place for 12 years so the package was financially suitable for me. However in the end I dithered and let the time lapse and I missed the deadline to ''sign on the dotted line'' by (end of February). I since haven't had any correspondance back, no official retraction confirmation or anything. 

To cut a long story short, what with the covid-19 outbreak I have had chance to properly think things over and assess what is important to me and would take the VR if it was put back on the table now. Do you think there would be a chance to get the offer back? Or will I just have to wait until the next redundancy window now? I'm in the union (Unison) with great backing if that helps.

Any help/advice much appreciated! 

p00hsticks

Personally I doubt it, not least because your employer is probably now in a different financial year.

But there's no harm in asking, is there ?

Suseka97

I suspect its highly unlikely.  When you were offered VR the email/letter would no doubt have said something to the effect that by not 'accepting' by a certain deadline you were effectively withdrawing your interest in the VR scheme.  So I rather think the horse has bolted on this one.  If, as you say, there is a restructure looming then there is a good chance there will be another VR opportunity, although the offer itself may be different in terms of the financial benefits and might even be a better one - who knows.