About to be made redundant

macalawd

Hi everyone, 
The company I work for has emailed their staff to say that they will be making staff redundant, I have only been at the company for 2 years, it should be 5 years but I had to quit halfway through in order to complete a transfer to a different role. Can they keep the redundant staff on furlough until july at no expense to the business? I am hoping if I am unfortunately made redundant, I can request that.

Any advice would be great!
Thank you.

Grumpy_chap

Sorry to hear your news.

I don't understand your comment about length of service.  Change of role within the company is normally continuous service, even if the company tried some trick.

What actually happened at the change of role?

epm-84

What size is the company?

How many redundancies are expected to be made?

How long is your notice period?

If it's a large company, who are making a lot of redundancies and you have a 4 week notice period then it'll be late July before anyone actually has their contract terminated, even if they start the process now.

macalawd

Grumpy_chap said:

Sorry to hear your news.

I don't understand your comment about length of service.  Change of role within the company is normally continuous service, even if the company tried some trick.

What actually happened at the change of role?

It was complicated but I had to hand in my notice and quit in order to sign a new contract in the new role

macalawd

epm-84 said:

What size is the company?

How many redundancies are expected to be made?

How long is your notice period?

If it's a large company, who are making a lot of redundancies and you have a 4 week notice period then it'll be late July before anyone actually has their contract terminated, even if they start the process now.

The company has about 1,000 staff and I can only go by rumours, that they are cutting over 300 jobs. I had to give the company 4 months notice if I were quiting but I think its in my contract they can terminate my job within 48 hours

sharpe106

It will cost them to carry on furloughing you.

But why did you have to quit to start a new  job in same company? that makes no sense. Even then I think you might find continuation of service carries on if you never actually left. 

Thrugelmir

Have you actually been told that you will be made redundant. Or that redundancies are to be made. 

Galloglass

It was complicated but I had to hand in my notice and quit in order to sign a new contract in the new role

Can't see that standing up to scrutiny at an Employment Tribunal so have that as a bargaining chip for an ex-gratia payment.

 Can they keep the redundant staff on furlough until july at no expense to the business?

They have to bring you back to make you redundant so furlough is just you in a sort of limbo. If you are made redundant you get a) payment in lieu b) accrued holiday pay c) redundancy based on service (see above) d) commissions/expenses/any contractual payments.

It's whatever is in your contract. When/if you get your actual calculation rather than speculation, you can check it.

If, within 3 months of leaving, you think you've been shortchanged you can raise go to an ET. 3 months is the limitation for action.

macalawd

Thrugelmir said:

Have you actually been told that you will be made redundant. Or that redundancies are to be made. 

Have not been told yet, but I believe I could be in the firing line due to my department already performing poorly pre-coronavirus

mattyprice4004

The leaving and re-hiring thing sounds a bit shaky - use that in any negotiations as mentioned above.
With regards to furlough, if you can sweet-talk them into it then great - but furlough is entirely at the employer's discretion in all aspects so if they want to stop, they can.

Grumpy_chap

macalawd said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Sorry to hear your news.

I don't understand your comment about length of service.  Change of role within the company is normally continuous service, even if the company tried some trick.

What actually happened at the change of role?

It was complicated but I had to hand in my notice and quit in order to sign a new contract in the new role

That really does not make sense.  You can agree a variation to contract and still retain continuity of service.  If that was not the case, no-one would ever accrue any length of service as every company would use that trick every time there is a change:

• Congratulations, star employee, we are going to promote you from Assistant Function to Function.  Just sign here, break of continuity of employment.
• Annual pay-rise, and extra 1%.  Just sign here, break of continuity of employment.
• Your contract says your company car is a Ford Sierra (if available).  That is no longer available so we want to offer you a Ford Mondeo, or you can't have a car.  Just sign here, break of continuity of employment.

Galloglass said:

They have to bring you back to make you redundant so furlough is just you in a sort of limbo. I

That is not correct.  You can be made redundant while you are on furlough.  They still need to do all the consultation and fair process, but it can all be done by e-mail and conference call.  Then they can issue notice and you can stay on furlough during the notice period.  If you are on furlough, there is no need for you to ever return to the company to be made redundant.  Sorry