Anyone done this?

My companies redundancy policy link is blank in the employee hub.  Its been this way for at least two months since I noticed, probably far longer.  So far I’ve been blanked by HR despite chasing (politely) and the union have sent a mail to the same person and have also been blanked

I’d like to know what the redundancy policy actually is, rather than what I might remember or am told informally.

Anecdotal comments from someone close to HR is ‘there isn’t a policy’ which I’m wondering means they are rewriting it.  Its important to me (and maybe others) as it is a significant benefit with the insurance it provides.  Should it be watered down, then it makes moving on look much more appealing

Should I cause a fuss, seems no one else is bothered

You cant request an FOI from a company. You can request information they hold on you specifically, but that would only be your contract Im guessing, which you may already have a copy of.

I’ve been there a long time, I don’t have a physcial copy,  only what is available electronically on the employee hub (which is blank for this specific policy)

You can only do a FOI to a public org (e.g. civil service type place). If your company is not public (e.g. Macdonalds or something) then maybe it’d be a DPA subject access request – but i’m not sure they’d give you what you want under that.

the union have sent a mail to the same person and have also been blanked

Surely the easiest thing would be for the union to contact some more senior HR people?

Is the policy contractual? If its not then company can basically do what they like without any consultation. Contractual they may have duty to consult on any changes (currently going through this in work as company proposing to make some changes to the calculations).

1. As others have said FOI requests only apply to public bodies.  Unless your organisation in a public (ie. government / pseuo government) org they will just laugh at you for asking for a FOI request.

2. Companies are under no obligation to have a redundancy policy.  The fact anecdotally you have heard there isn’t one and the section of the employee intranet is blank would seem to suggest they don’t currently have one.   My experience is organisations may temporarily have something when undergoing reorganization but it will be short lived – why would they commit to doing anything more than statutory on an indefinite basis.  There may be exceptions in big unionised places but then I’d expect the union knew the answer.

3. A policy that discourages people who want to leave from going in the hope of a better payout in the future is not in the company’s best interest.

4. If the company really hits hard times the policy would be irrelevant and only statutory redundancy would apply so if you think redundancy is likely you may not get the bumper deal you are hanging on for.

Finally, a friend hung on hoping for a great voluntary redundancy package from her miserable civil service job.  She was expecting the deal was going to be good enough for her to take early retirement – about 3.5 yrs early.  In reality, by the time they got to the point when redundancy was expected, so many people had jumped ship that she didn’t get it and she’s basically stuck there for 3.5 yrs; her less patient colleagues all left through “natural attrition” and filled the sort of jobs she might have applied for.  Be careful what you wish for.

The redundancy policy may be specific to the employee.  Many of my colleagues have different TnCs to me.  It just depends what was stated in the specific contract at the time of employment.  Perhaps this is why there isn’t a linked single policy any more?

Wrote a long post, deleted as its too specific.  Poly you have significant opinion bias!

No policy means you would likely get statutory redundancy payouts.
As for choosing who goes the company needs to ensure a ‘fair process’ to decide which positions they can do without. If one of the positions is yours then you will be told (eventually) and have all the fun of ‘consultation’ meetings to decide if your name and the redundant position match.
Most unions won’t agree a scoring system as it is tacit to accepting redundancies which they should always resist. They should however make sure that policy is applied fairly and will usually ask for volunteers to be considered first.
Long story short: talk to lay union rep and if no joy the full time official to find out the score. The score may be unknowns until the company decides to do something.

My companies redundancy policy link is blank in the employee hub.

It will be the legaly allowed minimum then. ACAS is a good website for this kind of thing. https://www.acas.org.uk/

I’ve never worked anywhere (private sector) which had a specific redundancy “policy”. Details of redundancy information is either in contract T&C’s (where they may differ by role) or in an employee handbook (if it’s blanket across the board).

If it’s not specified, it’s the legal minimum. Which is pretty much naff all, unless you are very long serving.

https://www.acas.org.uk/redundancy

If you’re aged 17 to 21
Your employer must give you half a week’s pay for each full year you’ve worked.

If you’re aged 22 to 40
Your employer must give you:

1 week’s pay for each full year you worked from age 22
half a week’s pay for each full year you worked before that

If you’re aged 41 or over
Your employer must give you:

1.5 weeks’ pay for each full year you worked from age 41
1 week’s pay for each full year you worked when you were between 22 and 40

half a week’s pay for each year you worked when you were between 17 and 21

web.archive.org ?

I’ve been told informally it’s 1 month for every year.  I know of previous redundancies which got this, as several years ago I was the manager having to do it.

there is a difference between voluntary and involuntary.  it used to be maximum amount of years taken into account.

it’s my understanding it’s part of our t&Cs, however new people are on different pension arrangements so it may well be they have different redundancy terms.

if it was statutory they would heamorage old guard, and basically they are the only people who know how stuff actually works.  it’s bad enough as it is with high turnover.

I’ll see if I can get the union to be interested and mull over whether it’s worth making any more of a fuss.

If you think it’s part of your t&cs ask for a copy of your contract, otherwise you nothing to fall back on except statutory which is also capped. Redundancy is crap, consultation is usually a pointless exercise and they’ve decided who’s going before they create the criteria, harsh but that’s the reality.

I’ve been told informally

Welcome to the desert of the real.

Morpheus, The Matrix

Having worked in tech where redundancies are something of a habit, I’d say it’s unusual for a company to have set redundancy terms, they are generally specific to each round of layoffs.

If you’re getting no joy with seeing a copy of your employee contract, you can submit a GDPR request:

https://www.tuc.org.uk/guidance/do-i-have-right-know-what-information-my-employer-has-collected-through-monitoring-me-work

You can write to your employer, asking for a copy of the personal information held about you, provided this is held either on a computerised system, or is held on paper and is organised into a ‘relevant filing system’…

…Your employer must provide the information you ask for within a month.

 Poly you have significant opinion bias!

You may not like what I am saying but it doesn’t make me wrong!

if it was statutory they would heamorage old guard, and basically they are the only people who know how stuff actually works.  it’s bad enough as it is with high turnover.

If the only reason people are staying is the belief there’s great redundancy terms its a strange place to work; I’ve only known such policies be used to stop a mass exodus in the middle of a restructure not as a long term strategy.  Those people you think would jump ship today would be going to a new place where there will almost certainly not be good redundancy policies and statutory will take a long time to build up to anything meaningful.  That doesn’t mean if your employer does decide to have redundancies they won’t offer something better than statutory at that time.

I’ve been told informally it’s 1 month for every year

You’ve been told nothing. Forget what other people think or say, what contracts or info they may have or think they have as its meaningless to you.

Well, I’ve had it in writing the policy is under review with the union because I kept badgering.  I kind of suspected this hence I was digging – surprised no one else seemed to know this, or possibly just hoped I’d go away.  Sadly I cannot believe that a review will result in even better terms, so it looks like this is getting watered down like other benefits have been over the years.  Also reducing those terms gives me a warning bell that its reasonable to anticipate redundancies, else why else would spend the effort to review.

Redundancy is not the *only* reason people stay somewhere far from it, however a decent policy is a significant benefit to those who are risk averse, which is what a good chunk of perms who stay at one company tend to be.  Risk averse people are not shit employees, they just don’t necessarily want to take on the additional stress of moving companies every few years.  Take a look at the cost of decent income protection plans, to get anywhere near say a years salary is expensive, and to get that level would take many years with a new employer with the same terms . Alongside other good benefits, like pensions, leave, being a nice place to work, role vaguely interesting etc… people will accept below market rates for roles as it nets off in the round.

Take away or reduce those benefits, and other employers look attractive, especially if they are offering significantly more money for the same (on paper) role.  And when the bills keep going up straight income starts to trump benefits.

Anyways I got my answer.  Better dust off the CV.  Tbh I could do with a new challenge

If you’re getting no joy with seeing a copy of your employee contract, you can submit a GDPR request:

A corporate policy isn’t disclosable under a GDPR request (unless for some bizarre reason it specifically talks about Brian from Facilities and you are Brian).

True, if it’s generic. However, if it contains any identifier, such as your name, or it’s tailored specifically for you, then it is subject to GDPR.