Redundancy pay.

[jonthefox]

Does anybody if there are any guidlines to redunancy pay when a company is re-structuring?

Ive read up `statutary` redundancy pay, but cant find owt else.

any help appreciated.

[stez]

i alway understood it was 1 weeks pay for every year worked. but as i'm fortunate never to've been in that position, i wouldn't bank on me being right.

[Guest]

ACAS has some useful info on its website, and you can phone up their helpline.

[davieG]

It was always a minimum of 1 week for every year but not including apprenticeship time. Maggi might have changed it though.

Plus anything extra in lieu of notice.

Found this:

Statutory redundancy pay

The calculation for your statutory redundancy pay is based on:

• how long you have been continuously employed
• your age
• your weekly pay, up to a certain limit (£380 current maximum)

You will get:

• 0.5 week’s pay for each full year of service where your age was under 22
• 1 week’s pay for each full year of service where your age was 22 or above, but under 41
• 1.5 week’s pay for each full year of service where your age was 41 or above

For example: If you are 45, your weekly pay is £380 per week and you have completed 15 years’ full service, you will receive £6,460 statutory redundancy pay.

Step one: 1.5 weeks x 4 years full service when you were 41 or above = 6 weeks

Step two: 1 week x 11 years service when you were under 41 = 11 weeks

Step three: 6 weeks + 11 weeks = 17 weeks x £380 (max weekly wage) = £6,460 statutory redundancy pay

The online calculator can help work out how much statutory redundancy pay you might be entitled to.

Here - http://www.direct.go...dancy/DG_174330

[leftsideoverhere]

Reading jonthefox's original question I think he was asking about redundancy pay other than 'statutory'. The bottom line is there might be a collective agreement between your employer and relevant recognised unions (if there are any unions recognised in your workplace) which could set out 'local' redundancy arrangements. These might be better than the statutory arrangements (either because they offer more money, or other things like extended periods of notice, or extra time off to look for a new job and so on) or they might specify the basis on which the company can deal with a redundancy situation. But the local agreement cannot be worse than the statutory minimums.

In general, your right to redundancy is predicated on (a) your existing job being no longer required by the company and (b) there being no "suitable alternative work" for you to do. If (a) isn't true, then it's not redundancy it is unfair dismissal. If (b) isn't true, then the company can get away with not paying redundancy by offering you the "suitable alternative work", but there are all sorts of legal arguments to be had about whether it really is suitable for you or not, based on things like skills required, working times and days, work sites and so on. It's not a clear picture, and much of it comes down to how well you, or your representative, can argue your case. You don't want to go to a tribunal over it, if you can possibly avoid it - tribunals take a long time.

If you are told you might be made redundant, rule one is talk to a union rep if there is a recognised union in your workplace. If there isn't, and you're not an individual member of a union to whom you could go to for advice, then go to the Citizen's Advice Bureau, or ring them up. If it's affecting you, you need impartial advice. End of. And if the company does something wrong, and you don't apply to a tribunal in time, or in the right way, you lose your rights.

Companies do all sorts of dodgy things (and say all sorts more) to avoid being liable for redundancy pay, including selecting people who will be cheap to get rid of (probably illegal), convincing people to take much worse jobs on lower pay instead of taking redunancy (certainly immoral) and all sorts besides. As a UNISON rep I've dealt with people who were happy to be made redundant but whose employer wouldn't let them go because of the money it would cost them, and others who were being pushed into redundancy even though there were perfectly appropriate alternative jobs for them to do.

Hope that helps, mate. Good luck.

[leftsideoverhere]

Oh yeah, one other thing. As well as a collective agreement over improved redundancy terms it is just about still possible that a company might not recognise a union for collective bargaining and yet still have a better than statutory redundancy policy. In that kind of situation the policy should be mentioned in either your contract of employment or your terms and conditions of employment, which might be in a company handbook or similar document. Find those, read them, and follow up any references to policies stored elsewhere (like on a company intranet). If you can't find any reference to anything better, you're probably stuck with statutory.

[jonthefox]

cheers.

[Guest]

Reading jonthefox's original question I think he was asking about redundancy pay other than 'statutory'.

That's where ACAS can help, they are really useful if you don't have union representation, can advise if there's anything in your employment contract, and point you in the right direction if they can't help.

And that's for most types of employment disputes, not just redundancy.