Redundancy experts assemble! Can you reject an alternate job and take the cash?

Its a legal requirement as is the need to get the advice

It’s a legal requirement that you take qualified advice but doesn’t have to be a solicitor, it can be a qualified advisor from eg. a union or the CAB.

It’s not a legal requirement that your employer pays, but is usually the case, because unless you are advised,  the agreement isn’t legals. So agreeing to foot the cost of advising you on the agreement ensures you get the proper advice. They are highly unlikely to pay for any more than checking the agreement over and making sure you understand what you are signing.

Ta

Companies seem to find it almost impossible to do redundancy fairly and legally. Usually the best advice is to wait until they cock it up then threaten a tribunal for unfair dismissal and accept a compromise agreement to shut up and go away.

I’m going through this right now, and as TJ says, the company have made a total arse of the process:

– Firstly invoking the absolute minimum consultation period which they had to extend by another week due to the number of people challenging the somewhat dubious benchmarking process.

– Offering alternative roles that don’t actually suit anyone being made redundant.

– A process so morally stretched that the company council don’t agree with any of it and are of the opinion it is fully targeted!

– It’s got unfair / constructive dismissal written all over it – which is where I’ll be going once the process finally reaches it’s conclusion as I have the documented evidence to support it on many levels in my case

– It’s got unfair / constructive dismissal written all over it – which is where I’ll be going once the process finally reaches it’s conclusion as I have the documented evidence to support it on many levels in my case

Which – they are different (or rather constructive is kind of like a sub-genre of unfair)

Having just been through it; constructive is very easy to claim (as it’s a personal thing to think you have no choice but to resign) but trying to PROVE it is very hard. And long. And even if you were to win you’re limited to loss of earnings unless for specific protected reasons. And to start with to prove it’s that bad to all intents and purposes you have to resign, and walk away with no notice, no redundancy, etc.

So you either need a pot of cash to live off while the case comes up (which could take 9-15 months on average acc to the lady at ACAS), plus you’ll need the legal advice (which costs) and if you get another job in the meantime (which let’s face it is likely because who wants to use up their life savings proving a point) then you’re limited to loss of earnings…….. which are minimal because you already got another job!! Basically the lawyer’s advice was don’t bother – accept the (cruddy) settlement offer they put on the table and get on with life.

constructive dismissal is a waste of time in this sort of case.

Unfair dismissal because of a faulty redundancy is much easier to show and is usually so obvious that once the companies lawyers see your case they don’t want to go to tribunal but pay you off instead.

I got 7 months paid leave while they mucked about and a £7000 payoff when I was entitled to one months notice and a £400 payoff. I ( and my missus) ripped their HR bod apart to the extent I felt sorry for him (almost)

Its a legal requirement as is the need to get the advice

I think only for a compromise agreement – not for redundancy – for simple redundancy there is normally no legal advice required.

I think you’re right poly. Because a settlement agreement is settling your rights to any future claim against them, you need to understand what you’re giving up.