[Archived] Employment Advice

[OhmiBRFC]

I came home this morning to find a letter from my current employers saying they are closing the business down and re-opening and trading as a different name. I have to reapply etc, which I aint going to do.

Just wondered if I am entilted to any sort of pay off? Been there since I was 16 and I'm now 20, will be 4 years next month I started.

Cheers in advance

[LeftWinger]

I came home this morning to find a letter from my current employers saying they are closing the business down and re-opening and trading as a different name. I have to reapply etc, which I aint going to do.

Just wondered if I am entilted to any sort of pay off? Been there since I was 16 and I'm now 20, will be 4 years next month I started.

Cheers in advance

Aren't you entitled to 0.5 weeks wages per year worked for redundancy? So that would be 2 weeks wages as of next month. Do you have an agreed notice period?

[Jimmy Jupiter]

I came home this morning to find a letter from my current employers saying they are closing the business down and re-opening and trading as a different name. I have to reapply etc, which I aint going to do.

Just wondered if I am entilted to any sort of pay off? Been there since I was 16 and I'm now 20, will be 4 years next month I started.

Cheers in advance

From direct.gov.uk:

"To calculate the number of weeks pay due, you should use the following amounts –

0.5 week's pay for each full year of service where age during year less than 22

1.0 week's pay for each full year of service where age during year is 22 or above, but less than 41

1.5 weeks' pay for each full year of service where age during year is 41+"

So if you are being made redundant, yes you should be entitled to a payout.

[OhmiBRFC]

My employment terminates on the last day of this month

[LeftWinger]

My employment terminates on the last day of this month

Have you got a written contract to the end of this month? Or is that the date they have told you that you'll effectively be made redundant?

[OhmiBRFC]

Thats the date I'll be laid off

[LeftWinger]

Thats the date I'll be laid off

How much notice did you have to give them before you heard this? 4 weeks?

If you have to give them four weeks, I think they have to give you four weeks - which would mean they would have to pay you for four weeks from todays date. So I think they'd have to pay you up until April the 4th - and then you'd get 0.5 weeks redundancy for each of your full years service - so depending on the exact date you started it'd probably be 1.5 weeks wages redundancy.

I'm not 100% sure on this - but thats my understanding.

[OhmiBRFC]

I got the letter today so its about 2-3 weeks before my employments terminated. I'll have find out, I want something out of them.

Been there 4 years and they decide to tell me via a letter, spineless b******s. One of the lads has a 2 week old baby and a mortgage to sort out.

[LeftWinger]

I got the letter today so its about 2-3 weeks before my employments terminated. I'll have find out, I want something out of them.

Been there 4 years and they decide to tell me via a letter, spineless b******s. One of the lads has a 2 week old baby and a mortgage to sort out.

One other thing though - now they've served notice of you losing your job - they have to let you out of work for an interview. As long as you prove to them you have an interview, they have to let you attend it, and I'm pretty sure they still have to pay you for it.

Hope you get yourself sorted with a new job anyway mate!

[OhmiBRFC]

Cheers for the advice

Wasnt staying there long as I want to join the Army, but I'm due to under go a hernia operation and wont get any sick pay either, cant of come at a worse possible time.

[stuwilky]

It sounds like it has been incredibly shoddily handled, however as with all employment situations there is no recompense unless people kick up a fuss via the correct legal channels.

The issue of redundancy is complicated and dependanding on the legal format of what they are proposing, ie changing names, or going bust and restarting (which it might be) depends on what you are able to get out of them.

If you are being made redundant, again in the true sense of the word, not the wording of their letter.... then you are entitled to statutory redundancy pay - as above - but bear in mind is it based on FULL years, so 2 yr 50 weeks is just 2 years. The first £30k of this is usually tax free.

[OhmiBRFC]

I did quite well from this if the truth be told, If I resign from the company I will have all the debts I owe them wiped out which is about £600 and get £300 cash.

[T4E]

Glad to hear this worked out for you mate. ###### situation to be in.

[blue phil]

It sounds like it has been incredibly shoddily handled, however as with all employment situations there is no recompense unless people kick up a fuss via the correct legal channels.

The correct legal channels I'm afraid , despite a decade of a Labour government , weigh heavily in favour of the employers . Recently a few took redundancy at my place after 15 - 20 years service . The amount offered (even in comparison to the times when Thatcher was in charge ! ) was not impressive to say the least .

As a long time union subscriber I can honestly say that things are on the slide again as regards to working terms and conditions . God only knows how the next generation are going to buy and keep homes .

That is the way things are in the "global village" when employers can simply point to a "newcomer" and say take it or leave it .

I suppose that makes me a racist ............

[stuwilky]

The correct legal channels I'm afraid , despite a decade of a Labour government , weigh heavily in favour of the employers . Recently a few took redundancy at my place after 15 - 20 years service . The amount offered (even in comparison to the times when Thatcher was in charge ! ) was not impressive to say the least .

What would be the difference offered under Thatcher and that offered now phil?

[blue phil]

In the private sector (obviously I have no figures) for the lower paid workers I'd hazard a guess that pay offs for redundancy have not gone up at all in real terms for a couple of decades .

That's an entirely personal opinion based on my 20 odd years in the labour market and as a TU member and sometime shop steward. If I'm wrong I'll gladly admit it .....

Straying off the subject a bit here's news in the LET of the wage cuts in the public sector in Blackburn . HARD TIMES

[stuwilky]

In the private sector (obviously I have no figures) for the lower paid workers I'd hazard a guess that pay offs for redundancy have not gone up at all in real terms for a couple of decades .

That's an entirely personal opinion based on my 20 odd years in the labour market and as a TU member and sometime shop steward. If I'm wrong I'll gladly admit it .....

I read that you were suggesting it was worse than anything under Thatcher, Id have thought it was the same in real terms. Given that the calculation is the same, higher paid workers may well be worse off in real terms though. Although I guess that depends what you describe lower paid as.

[blue phil]

It would be interesting to see what the "average paid" worker received in redundancy payments back in the 80's compared with now - although I doubt such statistics are kept .

Either way I don't think any great progress has been made by Labour or the union movement in the last 10 years - rather the reverse .

[stuwilky]

It would be interesting to see what the "average paid" worker received in redundancy payments back in the 80's compared with now - although I doubt such statistics are kept .

Either way I don't think any great progress has been made by Labour or the union movement in the last 10 years - rather the reverse .

On the issue of redundancy pay, Id agree. Given that the formula hasnt changed (although might over the next 24 months), but on many other areas of Employment, then yes some progress has been made - but not enough.

[trueblue]

I did quite well from this if the truth be told, If I resign from the company I will have all the debts I owe them wiped out which is about £600 and get £300 cash.

Does that not affect your right to unemployment benefit? the fact that you have resigned as opposed to being made redundant?

[92er]

Does that not affect your right to unemployment benefit? the fact that you have resigned as opposed to being made redundant?

I'm pretty sure you're right.

[OhmiBRFC]

Does that not affect your right to unemployment benefit? the fact that you have resigned as opposed to being made redundant?

I don't intend to get any unemployment benifits so all is well, applied for quite a few jobs as it is just waiting for people to get back to me now.

[LeftWinger]

I've got an interview for a job tomorrow, and I've been told that the interviewer follows a "competency based process".

I've been told that my answers need to say the reason something needed doing, what I did, and what the outcome was.

Has anyone else had a competency based interview recently? What sort of thing are they likely to ask? (The position is a supply co-ordinator).

[Wilky]

employers dont really give a stuff tho do they?

[thenodrog]

employers dont really give a stuff tho do they?

The very worst thing in business is employing people. Wasn't always the case but it is now. Best advice is to automate where you can, employ only when there is no alternative.