National Trust VR employee - retiring/resigning

Thrugelmir

GibbsRule_No3. said:

Would the new contract, since furlough, negate the earlier years contract and what happens since she was never given the new one to sign, physical paper or electronic?  

What's changed for a new contract to be issued ? 

Undervalued

GibbsRule_No3. said:

The problem is that after the furlough period NT had all of their employees reapply for their jobs, some were made redundant. No new contract was ever signed. Her two managers at the property told her it was 10 weeks and that as she had a lot of leave, that would be taken and the remaining hours could be made up in the 4 weeks she thought she needed to give if she wanted to leave after 4 weeks. She then spoke to a couple of other managers who work in different areas on the property to VR and a lady who used to do the manager job but moved to the retail side, they all say it should be 4 weeks in her VR position but when she called HR they told her that as she had done more than 10 years it was 10 weeks notice even at VR level.  She was going to call HR again to double check. I thought I’d ask here to see if any other NT VR long service people had the same experience.  Would the new contract, since furlough, negate the earlier years contract and what happens since she was never given the new one to sign, physical paper or electronic?  

A contract of employment does not have to be signed or even written to be valid. Although obviously it is much easier to prove what was agreed if it is written down. Lots of things go to make up an employment " contract" and even if there is a written one it does not begin and end with a sheet of paper with the word "contract" on it.

Yes an employer is supposed to provide a statement of main particulars of employment but there is generally no useful remedy if they don't.

So, if she was reasonably made aware of the notice period, in some way or other (be it written / verbal / handbook / poster on the tea room wall / semaphore(!!) etc) and they continue to work without protest then they have agreed to it.

General_Grant

GibbsRule_No3. said:

NT let them take the A/L over, hence the amount.  She will be leaving after the four weeks, even if it means them taking the A/L. Yes to a Pension but that will be taken as a lump sum, not paid into it for very long, when was auto enrolment introduced, from then?  She already had a Private Pension and of course now the State Pension will kick in during July.

As A/L is paid it should nevertheless be paid for whatever amount of time it covers.  Is she willing to possibly work extra time during the 4 weeks if that means everything is square even if her notice period is actually 10 weeks?

Is she checking what documents were provided during the redundancy process?  

Nick212010

theoretica said:

Does she have a work pension?  Many pension schemes need loads of notice to get prepared to pay out.

Indeed, this... 👆

In a well known public sector organisation, notice for retirement far outweighs notice for resignation of a job if the employee is moving elsewhere.

I think this may be the issue the OP has.

General_Grant

Nick212010 said:

theoretica said:

Does she have a work pension?  Many pension schemes need loads of notice to get prepared to pay out.

Indeed, this... 👆

In a well known public sector organisation, notice for retirement far outweighs notice for resignation of a job if the employee is moving elsewhere.

I think this may be the issue the OP has.

But the pension scheme is separate and no reason why it has to pay out the instant someone resigns just because they are pension age - and if it pays because of reaching state pension age it would have had a number of years notice of the date for that.

TELLIT01

I wouldn't expect the notice period to come into it.  She is approaching retirement age and is retiring.  She just needs to confirm with her employer that is the case.

General_Grant

TELLIT01 said:

I wouldn't expect the notice period to come into it.  She is approaching retirement age and is retiring.  She just needs to confirm with her employer that is the case.

Companies do not have a "retirement age" for staff. In times gone by they did and employees were effectively dismissed fairly on that date (generally state retirement age).  As suggested in the OP, employees now need to resign.

TELLIT01

General_Grant said:

TELLIT01 said:

I wouldn't expect the notice period to come into it.  She is approaching retirement age and is retiring.  She just needs to confirm with her employer that is the case.

Companies do not have a "retirement age" for staff. In times gone by they did and employees were effectively dismissed fairly on that date (generally state retirement age).  As suggested in the OP, employees now need to resign.

I'd forgotten about that change.  The place I worked knew well in advance that I would be retiring at 66 and there was absolutely no chance of me extending that departure date - they had asked!

Brie

Of course there's nothing to stop her saying "I'm working the next 3 weeks and then won't be in any more".  They aren't going to discipline her or stop her salary or anything.  They are just going to gulp and say "oh my, who can we get to fill in for those days after that?!"  If she can fiddle out the 10 weeks with AL or unpaid or flex or whatever then no problem.  As long as she wasn't expecting the pension to be paid out on a specific date as that will take a while.

General_Grant

Brie said:

Of course there's nothing to stop her saying "I'm working the next 3 weeks and then won't be in any more".  They aren't going to discipline her or stop her salary or anything.  They are just going to gulp and say "oh my, who can we get to fill in for those days after that?!"  If she can fiddle out the 10 weeks with AL or unpaid or flex or whatever then no problem.  As long as she wasn't expecting the pension to be paid out on a specific date as that will take a while.

Pension isn't much - and it will be taken as a lump sum.  There's no indication that it was important.