advice needed please

[hotchef23]

Hi
my wife and daughters company( that has just been taken over) that they work for, has asked for volunters to accept redundancy, they are in the consultation period so no firm dates set. my wife has gone and had other interviews for jobs.

she was told today by the new owner of the company that she works for, that if any one finds alternative employment when they have asked for redundancy then they will not pay the redundancy, and if after redundancy was accepted and money changed hands they would claim it back from the person who had taken it.

does any one know the legal position on this one.

thanks

 

[Carl V]

I don't know the legal aspects of it, but where I used to work I can remember one year, sometime in September, where they were asking for volunteers to accept redundancy but a date had been set for just before Christmas. In other words, they had to work up until that final date before redundancy would be paid out. If they decided to leave before, as far as I know they would have received nothing as you were effectively handing in your notice.

 

[Splog]

Hi
my wife and daughters company( that has just been taken over) that they work for, has asked for volunters to accept redundancy, they are in the consultation period so no firm dates set. my wife has gone and had other interviews for jobs.

she was told today by the new owner of the company that she works for, that if any one finds alternative employment when they have asked for redundancy then they will not pay the redundancy, and if after redundancy was accepted and money changed hands they would claim it back from the person who had taken it.

does any one know the legal position on this one.

thanks

No expert, but I would suggest that if she volunteered for redundancy and that was accepted she would be allowed time off to look for a new job, attend interviews etc. However she would still be expected to work to the end of the notice period, after that she can do whatever she likes.
What she shouldn't do is accept a new job that starts before her redundancy starts!

 

[munch]

If you leave a company during the consultation period then they don't have to pay you redundancy. It gets a bit more complicated when you are actually under termination of employment and I think it depends on the company.
Once you are made redundant they can do nothing about it.
There are laws about taking people back in the same role within in set period once redundancy is paid. All that most companies do in situations like this is change the roles description and title.

 

[Splog]

A bit off topic (ish) A chap I worked with was picked for redundancy and told he would have to work another three weeks, the then decided to pratt about for the first week, walked out and was never seen again :shrug: ... After all attempts to contact him failed, he was dismissed and never received a penny of the £5000 he would have got in redundancy pay off ....

 

[Carl V]

You can find yourself in a difficult situation if you've accepted redundancy (or the company has picked you) and you have to carry on working for, say, another 2 months. Supposing during that time you get offered another job. Do you accept and at least know that you won't spend any time out of work even if it'll mean you won't receive your redundancy pay off, or do you collect your redundancy at the end of the 2 months and face a possible prospect of being out of work for a while?

I guess it comes down to how long you've worked for the company and how much money you would be entitled to, but with the way things are at the moment job-wise, it's not a nice situation to be faced with.