At risk of being made redundant

twentysomething

Hi all, my oh was told today that he is being made redundant as they are consolidating his department to a single location in the UK. He is the only person in the dept in the Irish office. The letter he was given states that he is “at risk of being made redundant” and indicates that they are open to ideas or solutions from him. They will be holding further meetings with him next week to discuss this, but the person he met with today seemed to indicate that redundancy was very much on the cards. They are also making one other person in his office and a number of people in another office redundant. They announced the other redundancies in OH’s office in a meeting he was excluded from, but didn’t announce the 2 in his own office.
What are his options or what should we be looking into? He is with the company since 1999 and would be entitled to a decent amount of redundancy. He’s happy enough to take the redundancy, as he was hoping to move to a job closer to home soon anyway, but we want to make sure he’s going to get everything he’s entitled to. If they give him other work options within the company, can he refuse and look for the redundancy?

TheShow

Redundancy is not so bad. Went through it myself recently and had a new job lined up before I left so it was a win win for me.

We had suitable alternative roles and alternative roles. If you were offered a SAR then as far as I remember the redundancy was off the table. If you were offered an AR and you didn’t like it you could proceed to redundancy.
But I’m not sure if that’s how it works everywhere. If he’s is seriously interested in taking the package he should let them know ASAP and maybe save someone the headache of trying to map him into a new role.
I was with my former employer pretty much the same length of time as your OH and my lump sum was tax free in the end with the allowances etc.

twentysomething

I don't think they could offer him a similar role, as he's the only person in that role in his office. I reckon they're just going through the motions to cover themselves legally. From what i've heard they don't have the greatest track record with HR related stuff, so just wanna make sure that we know as much as possible about the process!

tinpib

twentysomething wrote: »

He’s happy enough to take the redundancy, as he was hoping to move to a job closer to home soon anyway, but we want to make sure he’s going to get everything he’s entitled to. If they give him other work options within the company, can he refuse and look for the redundancy?

TheShow wrote: »

Redundancy is not so bad.

Yep, in general, people seem to associate redundancy as some awful, terrible thing when often this is not the case.

In my own case I was delighted, like winning the lotto, couldn't have asked for more.

OP, you say your other half is happy enough anyway. I guess you are probably in a bit of shock now. Do your research and mull it over but it sounds like it will be good for ye both too.

Is this being managed from the UK?
The law is very similar but it sounds like they are managing it using UK terms.
Do some research on the process to be sure they are following Irish law.

It probably won't make any difference if he is happy to go.

jimmycrackcorm

twentysomething wrote:

He is with the company since 1999 and would be entitled to a decent amount of redundancy. He’s happy enough to take the redundancy, as he was hoping to move to a job closer to home soon anyway, but we want to make sure he’s going to get everything he’s entitled to. If they give him other work options within the company, can he refuse and look for the redundancy?

He dorks jump at the option for redundancy. In todays jobs market he'll amidst walk into another job with a nice sun off money in his pocket.

twentysomething

Yea, tbh it could be brilliant for us! I'm just a little worried that it might take a while for him to find a new job. I'm on maternity leave at the moment and am returning to work in November - I only paid the deposit to confirm our lo's place in creche yesterday

Johnnyhpipe

twentysomething wrote: »

Yea, tbh it could be brilliant for us! I'm just a little worried that it might take a while for him to find a new job. I'm on maternity leave at the moment and am returning to work in November - I only paid the deposit to confirm our lo's place in creche yesterday

What’s a lo?

tinpib

Johnnyhpipe wrote: »

What’s a lo?

Little One

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

He dorks jump at the option for redundancy. In todays jobs market he'll amidst walk into another job with a nice sun off money in his pocket.

I'm more interested in what the hell 'he dorks jump' means?

CeilingFly

19 years service - probably looking at about 12 months salary and mostly tax free. (statutory 9months)

In a bad labour market, not great. But in today's market, it's almost a bonus.

Especially if he was thinking of moving anyway.

Have him contact a few employment agencies who will tell him what opportunities are there

TheShow

twentysomething wrote: »

Yea, tbh it could be brilliant for us! I'm just a little worried that it might take a while for him to find a new job. I'm on maternity leave at the moment and am returning to work in November - I only paid the deposit to confirm our lo's place in creche yesterday

Don't be worried, there are lots of jobs out there. What line of work is he in?
If he gets the nod, or if its pretty much a sure thing, he should start working on his CV now. Chances are he'll get a job quick enough on a bigger salary.

Also, if its 19 years since he's done external interviews and prepared a CV for external market, then it might be worth considering investing in some professional coaching etc.

If it takes a few months to find a job, its not so bad, ye will still have a nice lump sum to cover you while he is on the hunt.

Think of this as an opportunity rather than something to worry about. My redundancy package put us in a position to be able to buy a new house after years of renting with a young family.