Being made redundant while work pays for weekends away

Mcfast

As the title say im being made redundant due to the economy and the company saying theres no money to pay us.Theres 3 of us being made redundant.A few weeks ago before we had found out an email went around in our office that there was a competition for ten people to win an all expenses weekend away to a concert.1of my colleagues who is not being made redundant said he thought it was a bit crap of them to be promising redundancies and having let some people go already while they were doing this.The competition wasnt a work incentive they just pulled names out of the hat.The following week we were let go.How can the company say they cant afford to pay us while there giving away free weekend and paying for 20 peoples train,hotel meals,drinks and concerts?Would this give us any recourse?

connundrum

Mcfast wrote: »

Would this give us any recourse?

Probably not, as a private company they can spend the money in whatever way they please i.e. staff 'training weekend'.

Now had they advertised your specific jobs in the local papers you'd have recourse.

Just because their actions seem stupid and immoral doesn't make the actions illegal.

Mcfast

thanks.im not saying its illegal.but there obviously lying that they cant afford to pay us when theyve paid for this trip away for so many people.especially as its not part of a work incentive???

Ste.phen

A trip away for 20 people would cost about 10k I imagine,probably less, that's about 3 months wages for one person.
It's definitely not a massive amount when compared to the amount they'll save with the redundancies.

It was definitely in poor taste for them to offer the competition if they knew they'd be letting people go, especially if they did the competition first.
There's a lot to be said for running incentives like this to keep the remaining staff happy after a bout of redundancies, though I imagine that's no comfort to you

jimmycrackcorm

It's important to signal to people being kept on that work life does go on otherwise morale and productivity is affected by people constantly worrying if they will be next and not putting their heart into their jobs.
Not doing it doesn't save any jobs.

x in the city

what **** they must be tbh

gandalf

Its probably being funded by a supplier. Most of the junkets that I used to get were normally funded that way.

Mcfast

the company are definately paying it for them themselves, not a supplier.i dont want to talk about the company but its only got one supplier who dont do stuff like that at all.the competition was announced before we were told we were being made redundant.the winners were randomly pulled out of a hat-so it was nothing to do with performance or an incentive for people to work harder.it was a full weekend for the ten people plus a guest each included, travel, 5star hotel,meals, drinks and concert tickets.they each even got a day off workfor it.we were each only given the min notice period and no redundancy pay.they say they cant afford to keep us on which must be a lie when they are paying all this money out for a random weekend away.they have been putting more and more pressure on people with everything from arriving 20 mins early to toilet/smoke breaks and when people disagree theres usually a shrug followed by well you know redundancies are coming and you dont want to single yourself out.....

none of us were on loads of money so it would have kept us in jobs for a while.they said theres more redundancies to come

SerialComplaint

gandalf wrote: »

Its probably being funded by a supplier. Most of the junkets that I used to get were normally funded that way.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

gandalf

SerialComplaint wrote: »

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

LOL oh I know that, we pay for them just in different ways

mcfast I'm not sure what to say, maybe its a misguided way of trying to keep morale up. Has anyone said anything about how appropriate it is having the competition given the current situation. If it hasn't been communicated to the powers that be they may not even realise the disquiet its causing.

Capt'n Midnight

Any idea how long ago it was booked, is there a chance it was paid for in better times and they have to use it or loose it?

/devils advocate

Mcfast

it all happened in one day. we got an email saying theres a fantastic competion of this trip, winners will be pulled out of a hat, then another email with congratulations to... and ten names.

Mcfast

gandalf strangely the go between managers (managers between our line and the powers that be) all won the competition plus other employees.nobody that was being made redundant won the competition.there are several in my dept made redundant and others from other depts.the company are letting go a few each week to avoid collective redundancy