Advice on ambiguous paragraph

winifer569 · 22 October 2019 at 11:45AM

So I've just had the 3rd and final consultation meeting about redundancy and have been told my job role has been made redundant but my boss wants me to work the notice period.

But in the 2nd meeting there was a paragraph in the letter i got that says;

"Other payments that would be made regardless of your length of service, would include payments for any part of your contractual notice period, that you are not required to work"

Now i'm not the best with grammar etc but i can read that 2 ways,
1) I have to work it but any they don't want me to work i would get paid anyway
2) I don't have to work it as says you are not required to work

Even if it was number 2 can they change their mind and make me work it anyway

Any help and advice appreciated as obviously i'd prefer to not work it and get paid anyway

CTricky80 · 22 October 2019 at 12:13PM

Taking the commas in I would say that it is saying that they will pay you for any part of your contractual notice period that you didn't work.

However, it doesn't say that you don't have to work your contractual notice period, so it seems they have decided that they want you to work it.

General_Grant · 22 October 2019 at 3:21PM

They are acknowledging that you should be paid for your full notice period whether or not you work all of it.

It is not in itself saying anything about whether or not you are required to work.

The reference to not working but being paid is just an example of the kind of thing they know they have to pay you which would not be dependent on your length of service (unlike the redundancy payment amount itself which does depend on your length of service).

Undervalued · 22 October 2019 at 3:39PM

General_Grant wrote: »

They are acknowledging that you should be paid for your full notice period whether or not you work all of it.

It is not in itself saying anything about whether or not you are required to work.

The reference to not working but being paid is just an example of the kind of thing they know they have to pay you which would not be dependent on your length of service (unlike the redundancy payment amount itself which does depend on your length of service).

Indeed.

You are entitled to at least statutory notice (1 week for each complete year of service up to a maximum of 12).

Whether you are required to work it or are paid in lieu is entirely up to the employer.

Manxman_in_exile · 23 October 2019 at 12:19PM

I agree with the others. If your employer does not require you to work your notice period, you'll get paid for it.

(Pedantic grammatical observation - if it had said "which" instead of "that", some people might argue that it did mean you had no obligation to work your notice, but "which" and "that" are pretty much accepted as interchangeable these days and what the clause means is pretty clear).

getmore4less · 23 October 2019 at 1:29PM

If the intention was to convey you were not required to work your notice "any" would be redundant as the use of "any" implies a variable amount.

Advice on ambiguous paragraph

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