Couple of Redundancy Questions

united4ever

Starting 3 month garden leave on full pay next week and then an enhanced redundancy payment should be made after 3 months.

Contract states I have to inform them if I am offered a job during garden leave.

I have an interview on Tuesday but obviously don't want to jeopardise the redundancy payment.

Do i tell them at the interview or if a job offer comes from it that my start date must be 1st June or later? That 3 month delay may reduce my chances of getting the job.

I know this is inadvisable but what if i took the job and didn't tell old employer. If the references are only personal ex managers completely detatched from the HR process then I don't see that triggering anything. Would it trigger a tax band change which would be picked up by old employer so they would then dig into it? Maybe there is something I am missing here but how would they find out exactly?

Finally, am i right in saying all benefits liek JSA/tax credits or anything else would only be available to me after garden leave complete?

JReacher1

As it’s an enhanced redundancy not statutory you need to obey the rules you agreed when you accepted the deal. Otherwise you’re at risk of not receiving the award. 

tacpot12

If you want the enhanced redundancy, you will need to not start a new job until your deal allows you to, but your employer seems they have envisaged situations where people do want to move straight back into employment, and can tell them this. This seems to open up the possiblity of negotiating a compromise where the enhancement is significantly scaled back, but you still get a bit more that the statutory or contractual redundancy amount. It's up to you.

I think I would tell the new employer before the interview about the restriction you are under (as they may not be prepared to wait), but that you would consider forgoing your enhanced redundancy if they were to interview you and want to offer you a job. You should point out the virtue of wanting to comply with the agreement you have with your existing employer. Many employers will wait, and some have lengthy recrutiment processes, where they do background checks and take up references, so they know it will be three months before you arrive as a new starter. (My last employer took three months from interview and job offer to set a starting date.)   

400ixl

Depending on your industry and level, 3 months notice period is pretty common and by the time they go through the interview process, make the offer, negotiate and give a start date you will probably be well into that 3 months, so a 1st June start date is unlikely to be an issue.

General_Grant

united4ever said:

Starting 3 month garden leave on full pay next week and then an enhanced redundancy payment should be made after 3 months.

Contract states I have to inform them if I am offered a job during garden leave.

I have an interview on Tuesday but obviously don't want to jeopardise the redundancy payment.

Do i tell them at the interview or if a job offer comes from it that my start date must be 1st June or later? That 3 month delay may reduce my chances of getting the job.

I know this is inadvisable but what if i took the job and didn't tell old employer. If the references are only personal ex managers completely detatched from the HR process then I don't see that triggering anything. Would it trigger a tax band change which would be picked up by old employer so they would then dig into it? Maybe there is something I am missing here but how would they find out exactly?

Finally, am i right in saying all benefits liek JSA/tax credits or anything else would only be available to me after garden leave complete?

Some employing organisations seek references from current employers even before an interview.  But that is very rare.  So if your current employer receives a reference request, they will almost certainly be asking you whether an offer has been made - and may ask the reference seeker.

I emphasised one sentence in your post because that is about being offered a job, not about starting it.

On gardening leave you are still supposed to be on call to your current employer - they could ask you to attend at work at any normal working time during that period.

A change to your tax code could, as you suggest, also alert Payroll and thus HR to the fact that you might have additional earnings somewhere although, of course, that is not the only reason why a tax code can increase.