Redundancy advise please

smc4761

I received my letter on Tuesday advising that the company is down sizing. At the moment there are 2 of us doing the same role but one of the roles is being made redundant, and we have to apply for the one remaining role. 

I joined the company way back in September 1997 and have been TUPE, transferred several times although I do have 24 + years of service. The notice period is 12 weeks
The question is, if I am made redundant would my length of service be from the day I received my letter, 5 July or from 12 weeks from this date. In other words, giving me over 25 years of service instead of 24 years 

As an aside from this, if I requested voluntary redundancy, would the redundancy payment be the same as being made compulsorly redundant. I dont think I could handle the stress of applying for the role

Thank you in advance for any help

mclaren32

It would be based on your leave date at the end of your notice.

That assumes though that you don’t take pay in lieu of notice - a friend of mine made that mistake and very almost cost him &5k!

YBR

Voluntary Redundancy payment could be whatever you agree to, but generally it will be no less than the compulsory redundancy that you would be due either contractually or Statutory minimum.

I've not experience redundancy processes when you have to re-apply for your job - my employers have "scored" the people in each selection pool and make the bottom ranked redundant. Having said that, in my opinion, you still have a job until they confirm you're redundant. The length of service will calculated at the time when they confirm that you are redundant, don't rely on working your notice, it's not uncommon to give "PILON" Pay in lieu of Notice and you have to leave sooner than your notice period.

So it all depends on whether they take 2 months for the application/selection process. Putting in an application would slow it down compared to you not applying.

Have you spoken to the other person, and are you a member of a union?

Andy_L

Length of service is based on the day you leave IE 12 weeks after the notice of redundancy. Although have you actually received notice of redundancy? Or is this just a heads-up and notice will only be given when they've decided who's going?

Andy_L

Do you have a contractual right to better than statutory redundancy?

Voluntary redundancy has to at least as much as statutory. It can be more or less than any (better than statutory) contractual payment. It depends what the employer is trying to achieve by offering it

smc4761

Thanks for all the replies it is appreciated; it is an absolute minefield out there trying to gain correct information

So far I have only received a letter advising of consultation period and that I am "at risk".

I am not a member of union and the other person is looking to stay in the role, so they will apply.

I should be entitled to redundancy per my contract and the terms are far superior to to statutory redundancy. 

Now comes a potential issue. I have TUPE'd over several times from my original employer and I believe that I should be under my original terms. However I only have a limited amount of paperwork confirming this. One of my more senior colleagues, who was on a similar contract to myself, we started approx same time and TUPE'd at same time, was made redundant a few years back. They tried to palm her off with statutory redundancy, but she was having none of that and fought them tooth and nail for her correct redundancy. She did eventually get most of what she thought she was entitled to but it took months of stress and worry. The difference between her entitlement and statutory ran into many tens of thousands of pounds

Brie

I would be asking questions as to when they consider your service to have started.  I don't want to frighten you but we've been through a similar thing at work and a colleague who has worked there 20+ years is only entitled to 2 years service calculations for redundancy due to when he was TUPEd.

If it was me I would be asking the to confirm how the redundancy calculations work and don't say anything more.  So you will look to get an answer that says "well you started on 1 Sept 1997 and your potential end date is 1 Nov 2022 so that's 25.15 years at 2 x weekly salary per year."   

YBR

Brie said:

I would be asking questions as to when they consider your service to have started.  I don't want to frighten you but we've been through a similar thing at work and a colleague who has worked there 20+ years is only entitled to 2 years service calculations for redundancy due to when he was TUPEd.

If it was me I would be asking the to confirm how the redundancy calculations work and don't say anything more.  So you will look to get an answer that says "well you started on 1 Sept 1997 and your potential end date is 1 Nov 2022 so that's 25.15 years at 2 x weekly salary per year."   

TUPE keeps the continuous service date protected, your colleague needs to complain.

I have experienced similar errors - I started with Company A, Tupe to B and later to C. the HR department at C recorded my start date as when I TUPEd to B. I had to correct them but they admitted their mistake.