CVA and Redundancy

bujin

HI All. Hoping for some help with a CVA and Redundancy question.

My daughter and all her colleagues were told they were being made redundant March 29th. Following the announcement of the Furlough scheme, staff were told they'd be furloughed instead until further notice.  Eventually staff were told the Business was entering a CVA in June. In July staff received their official Redundancy Notices had consultations and were told they'd soon have the direct contact they needed to claim their monies owed,however, everything went very quiet and the Employer didn't respond to emails and staff heard nothing from the end of July to the end of August. Several members of staff said they were going to go through ACAS. Since then it's been a case of waiting and sending emails asking what's going on but there always seems to be some delay in response and/or in explaining what the current circumstances are. In October my daughter informed the Employer if she didn't hear from her with 7 days she'd also start some action against her. She didn't respond within the seven days, but yesterday she then told staff that she was entering a CVA (they thought she already had) and they would hear from them within 3-4 weeks. Needless to say staff  have lost confidence in the Employer and are aware that they only have 6 months to make their redundancy claims.

Our question is, can they extend the 6 months say for example by applying to a Tribunal, are there things she can do within that 6 months time frame to help her claim? A member of staff was told that the CVA doesn't guarantee payment of Redundancies, does anyone know anything about this? I also read that a letter should be sent by the employer stating that she will not be able to pay Redundancies and that her Redundancy Notice should be in the form of a letter not an email. Any help or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thrugelmir

CVA's take time to negotiate and agree.  Covid may well have caused delays to the process.  The employer may well not be in a position to communicate anything yet until it's official. 

bujin

I know this may sound like staff are anti the employer unecessarily, but it would take too long to write here how badly the employer has treated staff. It's been a very difficult time for them all and obviously a difficult time for the employer, but you'll just have to trust me when I say she has not had their interests at heart and some of what she has said just doesn't add up, even allowing for the delays Covid would undoubtedly bring.

Hopefully someone will be able to shed some light on my actual questions.

adamp87

You need to break down your questions as there’s just a huge wall of text and makes it difficult for people to read/focus

I don’t think anything can be answered until you find out about the CVA.

There’s not really much to be done I don’t think until then. If they are going to make her redundant then there’s probably nothing to stop that.

The CVA may do that though as it can reduce some debts & payments 

bujin

Thanks and sorry that's why I put the actual questions at the bottom, but wanted to give some background info first.

As explained above, staff have already been made redundant. I know the CVA will answer everything but the trouble is they thought the employer was entering a CVA back in June with a certain company and now the other day the employer has mentioned a completely different company and entering a CVA as though it's a new plan, without any explanation as to why.

The actual concern is that they were made redundant on July 2nd and are worried about this 6 month deadline and feeling like waiting another month, with no real confidence in the employer, is cutting it very fine.

Thrugelmir

bujin said:

now the other day the employer has mentioned a completely different company and entering a CVA as though it's a new plan, without any explanation as to why. 

To put it politely that's none of your business. The creditors could still wind the business up. If they don't accept the proposals on the table. 

bujin

Wow! Came to ask for some advice!

Well it is my daughter's business as she's an employee and I would suggest that the very least she could expect is communication. Frankly the outcome isn't the problem, CVA or Insolvent, my daughter is redundant, so to put it politely all she cares about right now is herself and her kids.

Kind of wishing I'd never bothered asking for help.