Some help with work redundancy

Teddington Cuddlesworth

Hi, I'm being made redundant from my job of 12 years.

The owner has decided to retire in 6 months and has not been able to find a buyer for the business.

I've a quick question regarding my position.
My employer is looking for me to leave the business in the next 4 weeks, so that he can save on overheads.
The offer he has put to me is the statutory requirements, no more no less.
Would I be in a position to refuse that offer and continue working until the business closes in 6 months?

If he offered more money I would leave, but as of now he hasn't. For my situation at the minute, would I be voluntary redundancy or forced redundancy?

Tiddlypeeps

When I was made redundant a while back the company had to give 30 days notice that redundancies were on the cards, and then 30 days notice after that to any individuals being made redundant. Then at the end of that pay out redundancy pay owed. They did the minimum in all regards they could get away with.

Assuming nothing has changed in the last few years legally I would think your boss needs to follow a similar process. So if you refuse to leave voluntarily you will get a minimum of 4 more weeks pay on top of what is on offer at the moment, since he wants to give you 4 weeks notice but the standard process requires 8 weeks notice. In reality you may even get longer if it takes him time to figure out how he needs to go about things.

jimmycrackcorm

Have you got a contract specifying a notice period? The minimum notice period for between ten and fifteen years service is actually six weeks so he is trying to short change you.

Make sure you get a written copy of the notice specifying the reason so that it doesn't turn out that he 'changes his mind' after.

Teddington Cuddlesworth

Sorry, I should have mentioned that he announced his plans back in February. The redundancy he has offered was offered 2 weeks ago.
There was a discrepancy with my start date and he was waiting for me to show proof of when I started. Proof I couldn't get, at the time my wages would have been paid out of the petty cash.
Also, he has said that he's doing the "last in, first out" approach but the next person up for redundancy after me is the longest serving member of staff. I don't have that in writing but he did say it to me.

Teddington Cuddlesworth

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Have you got a contract specifying a notice period?

I don't, there was never any talk of working out a contract in the 12 years I was there.

Cloudio9

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

When I was made redundant a while back the company had to give 30 days notice that redundancies were on the cards, and then 30 days notice after that to any individuals being made redundant. Then at the end of that pay out redundancy pay owed. They did the minimum in all regards they could get away with.

Assuming nothing has changed in the last few years legally I would think your boss needs to follow a similar process. So if you refuse to leave voluntarily you will get a minimum of 4 more weeks pay on top of what is on offer at the moment, since he wants to give you 4 weeks notice but the standard process requires 8 weeks notice. In reality you may even get longer if it takes him time to figure out how he needs to go about things.

That's a collective redundancy. I'd guess this business is too small for collective redundancy to apply. However, the op is entitled to six weeks notice and it doesn't sound like notice has been served yet.

Teddington Cuddlesworth

It's a small retail business with 3 full time staff and 2 part time staff.

Cloudio9

Teddington Cuddlesworth wrote: »

It's a small retail business with 3 full time staff and 2 part time staff.

Now that you're losing your job could you take it over yourself?

Teddington Cuddlesworth

Cloudio9 wrote: »

Now that you're losing your job could you take it over yourself?

That offer was put to me but I've no interest.
I've been studying to become qualified in an unrelated field for a long time, I'm not giving up now...

davo10

I suppose that the reality is that he could decide to close the business and liquidate with immediate effect if the offers are not taken up so unfortunately the writing would appear to be on the wall.