Redundancy and tribunal judgement 31 January 2021 at 10:59AM in Redundancy & redundancy planning 5 replies 404 views

Molly56

My husband has just received an employment tribunal judgement against his former employer which directs his former employer to pay the lump sum redundancy due. However I can see no indication on the paperwork that says when this amount should be paid. 

Is there a timeframe in which employment tribunal judgements are expected to or need to be paid and if so how long is that period?

The only other information the paperwork gives is that interest becomes payable if the debt is not paid within 42 days.....does this potentially mean that the employer can withhold payment for another six weeks before we can take any further action to pursue the debt.

Our guess is that the employer will put off payment for as long as possible as he has a track record of paying as late as possible when he was running the business which has now come to an end. Without a specified date for payment it is difficult to see when that will be. 

It has taken a lot of our time and effort to get it to this stage and just want to bring it to a conclusion as soon as possible.

Any advice would be appreciated. 

tacpot12

Well done to him for getting this far. According to this Citizens Advice website page, the judgement should say when the employer has to make payment by: After the employment tribunal hearing - Citizens Advice 

So have another look at the paperwork, and if it still isn't clear, I would suggest trying to contact the clerk for the tribunal to ask about it. A due date may have been omitted by mistake. The webpage also gives advice on a fast track method of recovery using High Court Enforcement officers (as seen on TV on the "Can't Pay, We'll take it away" programme). 

I expect that the employer will have a number of weeks to make payment, because they also need to consider whether to appeal, so will need to take legal advice. I wouldn't be surprised if they were allowed six weeks for this. In the mean time, if you or your husband are able to keep and eye on the employer to identify vehicles that might be owned by them and where they are stored, this is information you can pass onto the enforcement officers if the employer doesn't pay up. 

Undervalued

Molly56 said:

My husband has just received an employment tribunal judgement against his former employer which directs his former employer to pay the lump sum redundancy due. However I can see no indication on the paperwork that says when this amount should be paid. 

Is there a timeframe in which employment tribunal judgements are expected to or need to be paid and if so how long is that period?

The only other information the paperwork gives is that interest becomes payable if the debt is not paid within 42 days.....does this potentially mean that the employer can withhold payment for another six weeks before we can take any further action to pursue the debt.

Our guess is that the employer will put off payment for as long as possible as he has a track record of paying as late as possible when he was running the business which has now come to an end. Without a specified date for payment it is difficult to see when that will be. 

It has taken a lot of our time and effort to get it to this stage and just want to bring it to a conclusion as soon as possible.

Any advice would be appreciated. 

Sadly, yes it does I'm afraid.

If you have to take enforcement action it could be a lot longer before you see any money. Statutory interest will be added to the amount, plus collection costs, assuming the enforcement is successful.

Thrugelmir

Molly56 said:

Our guess is that the employer will put off payment for as long as possible as he has a track record of paying as late as possible when he was running the business which has now come to an end. Without a specified date for payment it is difficult to see when that will be. 

Much will depend on the accessibility of liquid funds if it's a sizable sum. Difference between can't pay and won't pay. 

Molly56

Just a quick update....
Had a reply from a query I sent to Redundancy Payments Service whilst going through tribunal process....short story is that if we send them the tribunal judgement they can then set it up as a case and give us a case number to complete form RP1 ...they then write to employer to see if he is going to pay and if not (or doesn’t reply within 10 days) then RPS will pay the redundancy sum to my husband before taking steps to recover the money from employer...
....have done all of the above so now have a claim number and just waiting to hear the outcome of their enquiry.
Interestingly I also found out that employer had lied to us about making an application to the same scheme....as no insolvency practitioner in place and no case number we could not apply but as an employer in financial difficulty he could....we told him all this.....evidently their records show he made initial enquiry but took it no further....think he was put off by fact that they would be asking him questions about his financial affairs.........which is exactly what they will do now!!
Guess he now needs to make the choice of pay up or take the consequences....the ball is in his court!

Thrugelmir

At least you'll receive the money owed and the matter can finally be closed.