Hi guys I have a question I was hoping you may be able to help me with!
My job has made 5 positions where I work redundant, We was offered the chance of either re-applying for our jobs (I am an administrator and basically only 1 position is available now) or look at taking redundancy.
Now my company calculated that my redundancy is around £1,100 and emailed me a statement to confirm this.
Now I chose not to re-apply for my job assuming that I could instead claim my redundancy (I have a new job to go on to but will not be letting my current employer know this)
Now I am worried because I didnt choose to re-apply for my job they may use this as an excuse to not pay me my redudancy?
Can anybody clear this situation for me as I am heavily relying on this redundancy to clear my debts.
Assuming, from your use of the £, that you’re in the UK, if your position has been made redundant then they will have to pay you and redundancy pay you are entitled to, regardless of whether you choose to apply for any new jobs or not.
Thank you very much for the reply, Yes am from the UK.
I’ve never been made redundant before so am not very familiar with the process, I am not too sure on wether my position has been made redundant. We was told in the meeting that instead of there being 2 administrators there will now be only 1 admin and 1 new admin assistant, and was informed that we could either take redundancy, or re apply for the position so im not 100% sure wether that means my position has been made redundant? I am possibly just confusing myself but im worried that I will loose out on my redundancy pay for not choosing to re apply for the admin position
Being from the US, I am not familiar with your use of the word ‘redundant.’
Do you mean that your position is no longer needed or has been eliminated for whatever reason? In the US we would refer to this as being laid off.
Meaning your position has been eliminated through no fault of your own and you may either apply for another job with the same company or leave the business under good terms and receive a weekly government stipend for a certain number of weeks, to tide you over until you find new employment.
I think that you have something not quite right here.
This looks like a selection process for redundancy, and by applying you might be offered a post you may not want. If you were then to turn it down then you might be construed to have resigned and not be entitled to redundancy. The company then wins by getting rid of you, not paying out and keeping someone else. Perhaps this could then be offered to another person who is known not to want the post as well.
This might be a bit cynical on my part, but the reality is that if you post has been discontinued, you do not need to do anything more - you are redundant.
I assume you have received the 90 notice of redundancy, plus all your pro-rata holiday entitlement? If you have not been notified at least 90 days worth then you could easily have grounds for unlawful termination - this is a legal requirement of the redundancy process.
This can be useful to extract more salary because you are likely to be paid out this notice period rather than keep you on working out your notice.
It’s a similar situation, certainly. But in the UK, a company laying someone off (or making them redundant) is obliged to pay them a lump sum (statutory redundancy pay), the size of which is dependant on your wage and length of service.
Going back to the OP, and casdave’s point, this is from the government’s website, and explains your rights when you’re being made redundant.
[QUOTE=www.gov.uk]
Reapplying for your own job
You might be asked to reapply for your own job, which could help your employer decide who to select.
If you don’t apply or you’re unsuccessful in your application, you’ll still have a job until your employer makes you redundant.
[/QUOTE]
The page suggests that reapplying for jobs is a common way of selecting who is going to be made redundant, and on that basis you should not have anything to worry about.
I was redundant three times. The rules may have changed but I think the principles are the same.
You get a notice of redundancy which sets out the terms. (This, I think, is what you have.) Your actual job must be redundant and they are supposed to make every effort to offer you an alternative. You do not have to accept the alternative.
In my case I was twice in the fortunate position that, like you, I had another job lined up. In both cases I talked to the HR department and we agreed an immediate departure with three month’s wages in lieu of notice. This is taxable, unlike the redundancy payment.
On the last occasion I did not have a job to go to but still left immediately. Very few employers want a guy on site who knows he is being offed, so they usually pay up.
I suggest that you approach the HR department and formally accept the redundancy. Then hope that they will want you off the premises ASAP.
Please pay attention to your pension entitlements - the way they are handled may be crucial in the future. I was able to use my accrued pension to buy years in the NHS pension scheme when I found work with them - this is probably worth over two thousand a year in pension to me.