Redundancy question, was it fair??

mrsmitch01

Back in 2020, the company that i worked for announced our store was closing due to non profits and i was elected by my fellow colleagues to mitigate the redundancies. It is worth noting that the branch opened in August 2015 and most staff started their contracts during training in July 2015, mostly managers and team leaders. 
They had said that once you had completed 5 years service you could extend your notice period from 8 weeks to 26 weeks. 
During the redundancy mitigation meetings, they told us that once all options had been exhausted to save jobs or tupee staff into other positions around the business, then the redundancy meetings would end and offers would then be sent out. The talks ended 1 week before our 5 year service!!! I would say The business leaders wanted to end the talks on that particular date and they didn't want to extend any talks.
Most of us felt cheated out of our extended redundancy pay as some managers managed to keep theirs due to the start dates of their contracts falling after the deadline. By 1 week. 
can anyone advise on whether this was ethically correct of the leadership team to do to us please? Any advice or experience in this would be appreciated. thanks in advance 

FlorayG

Ethically probably not but ethics are not legalities and obviously if the company was in in financial difficulties it made business sense to save money this way

lincroft1710

mrsmitch01 said:

 Any advice or experience in this would be appreciated. thanks in advance 

Just forget about it and move on. Even if the employer was in the wrong, it is far, far too late to do anything about it.

400ixl

They did nothing illegal if that is what you are asking. If you contract stated that clause kicked in at 5 years and you were made redundant at 4 years 11 months then that clause was not active.

Ethical does not come into it. It could have been if they had let that clause become active then the company would have been insolvent and you would have all only got the government minimal redundancy.

General_Grant

mrsmitch01 said:

. . . . 
They had said that once you had completed 5 years service you could extend your notice period from 8 weeks to 26 weeks. 
. . . 

I'm not surprised that that business closed - even offering 8 weeks notice from Day 1 was generous and a prospective 6 months was astounding.  (Were employees meant to give the same amount of notice too?)

Stma123

Posting on behalf of my daughter.

 

I'm currently 32 weeks pregnant and have been made redundant. My payout will be April, the first month of the new financial year. 

 

As part of the payout I will receive…

 

• Statutory redundancy payout (tax free)
• 1 month notice period
• Statutory maternity pay
• 3 x full months salary (as part of an enhanced package)
• 30 days annual leave (as part of maternity package)

 

After advice from the HR team at work I called HMRC to advise them of the payout, in the hope that my tax code will not be affected. 

 

After speaking to HMRC, they have advised that after the tax-free redundancy payout, as this is the first month of the new tax year, I will have the £1,048 tax free allocation but the rest will be taxed in bands, so 20% and potentially even 40% leaving me with… well not a lot. 

 

It was then advised that I can claim a refund but that process can take 3 to 4 months to process.

 

As I’m due at the beginning of May, and had the maternity package security, I was not planning on working for a year. Now I’m starting to worry about finances. Does anyone have any advice?

lincroft1710

Stma123 said:

Posting on behalf of my daughter.

 

I'm currently 32 weeks pregnant and have been made redundant. My payout will be April, the first month of the new financial year. 

 

As part of the payout I will receive…

 

• Statutory redundancy payout (tax free)
• 1 month notice period
• Statutory maternity pay
• 3 x full months salary (as part of an enhanced package)
• 30 days annual leave (as part of maternity package)

 

After advice from the HR team at work I called HMRC to advise them of the payout, in the hope that my tax code will not be affected. 

 

After speaking to HMRC, they have advised that after the tax-free redundancy payout, as this is the first month of the new tax year, I will have the £1,048 tax free allocation but the rest will be taxed in bands, so 20% and potentially even 40% leaving me with… well not a lot. 

 

It was then advised that I can claim a refund but that process can take 3 to 4 months to process.

 

As I’m due at the beginning of May, and had the maternity package security, I was not planning on working for a year. Now I’m starting to worry about finances. Does anyone have any advice?

Why didn't you post this on your original thread rather than post on someone else's thread of a completely different topic?