Ok, on Friday we had a meeting and we’re told our Terminal is ceasing operations and we are being made redundant. HR stated we are now “at risk” and in “consultation “. What wasn’t clarified is how long consultation is and when official notice is given as to an end date of role.Meanwhile we have to carry on and proceed with decommissioning the facilities, a thankless task frankly.Can anyone advise on timescales please?.

https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/consultation

Thanks beej, it seems there is no defined period just a minimum. The lads at work I fear assume it’s 90 days as per contract changes. I will forward this to them :-/

…and ask your employer

Funky…..we would but comms are unreliable at best. The meeting was a farce full of ifs,buts maybes and could rather than anything clear and concise. Disappointing as they had over 2 weeks to prepare before meeting us.

The period will be the minimum that the company can legally get away with*.

i.e.

20 to 99 redundancies – the consultation must start at least 30 days before any dismissals take effect
100 or more redundancies – the consultation must start at least 45 days before any dismissals take effect

* In my experience anyway.

But they seem to have jumped the gun if they’ve stated the period has already started, you need employee reps to be elected (or a union rep) first.

Only 5 of us going. That’s why I was asking on here as I can’t find anything for less than 20.

This is one area where TJ often had brilliant factual advice, but obviously he’s gone now.

So, you may as well put your helmet on and prepare for a bumpy ride.

Hope it all works out for the best in the end

EDIT: may be worth searching for redundancy advice on here, there’s been quite a lot of posts on the subject

There were probably loads of ifs and buts because employers aren’t really allowed to say now that your all fired and you will be going in 2 weeks time. They have to say there will be a consolation period and the whole point of a consolation period is that it gives the employees time to persuade the company to change it’s mind. So until the consolation period has ended they can’t give you a date and many details. In reality most companies are 99.9% sure they are going to make the people redundant so the consolation period is bit pointless. As there are only 5 of you could all agree with the company to close consultation straight away and then they could start the redundancy period straight away. However you might want to work for as long as you can as at least it is guaranteed income.

I was turfed out in a less than 20 redundancy, certainly had a couple of weeks consultation time or something from memory, the reality probably is that unless another role comes up in the company then you are out the door especially if you are packing the place up. Notice is as per your contract. You need to chase your HR team really, but they’re probably flat out preparing the redundancies. There is a lot of uncertainty in the consultation period, I think I swore quite a bit.

Sorry to hear this, its not good news…

The government link up there is pretty good. Check out all things like statutory minimum pay, notice days etc etc.

As mentioned, prepare for the minimum in all aspects, i.e. notice period, redundancy pay etc, everything above that is a bit of a bonus.

I’m expecting a few more of these posts on the run up to Xmas as timing wise, it makes changes ready for the new financial year in March…..

Hope it goes well for you given teh circumstances.