Redundancy- top tips for employees from employment solicitors
/Employment law and redundancy
Our firm Ergo Law advises many employees before, during and after they are made redundant. With redundancy making headlines again recently following Thomas Cook’s demise, we asked our employment law solicitors Emma Reid and Claire Henderson for their five key pieces of advice for anyone facing redundancy.
How does redundancy work?
It’s important to remember that redundancy covers a variety of scenarios which may be quite different from Thomas Cook’s failure. It can include voluntary redundancy and restructuring. The following five tips apply to many different factual circumstances leading to redundancy:
1. Ask- is it a genuine redundancy situation?
Sometimes (as in a business failure or workplace closure) the redundancy is clearly genuine. Often something is painted as redundancy when it is not. If there is a restructure leading to redundancy, we always recommend asking lots of questions during a consultation process to ensure all avenues to avoid redundancy have been explored. It may be possible to negotiate a more favourable redundancy payment (often with a settlement agreement) if your employer does not observe your legal rights appropriately.
2. Understand your entitlements on redundancy.
Your organisation may have a redundancy policy providing enhanced entitlements. You should also ensure you get your full pay, accrued holiday and benefits to the termination date. You should always be paid your full entitlement to notice (and depending on your contract may also be able to insist on benefits during this period even if your employment ends quickly and you are paid in lieu). You can calculate your SRP online with this government calculator.
3. Check whether you have redundancy protection.
You may be eligible for financial assistance. For example, find out whether you have mortgage protection insurance. Often people have these policies in place from the time of a re-mortgage and completely forget about them. You may also have payment protection insurance for credit cards and it is worthwhile considering a mortgage holiday to ease the pressure.
4. Consider your bargaining position.
If you have restrictive covenants in your employment contract (restrictions on working for competitors/ dealing with customers etc) compulsory redundancy presents an opportunity to get those waived - approach your employer to ask about this. Think about other payments you may owe your employer such as loans or enhanced maternity pay, it may be possible to get outstanding loan amounts waived or confirm you can retain maternity pay.
5. Speak confidently to future employers.
Don’t be afraid to tell future employers. Redundancy is no fault of yours and it’s much better to have this as a clear reason for termination than no mention at all which can be ambiguous in a reference. Future employers do not view redundancy negatively.
Employment solicitors in Edinburgh and other sources of advice and support
Ergo law’s employment solicitors guide clients through redundancy situations and provide advice on employment law rights and how to exercise them. We often negotiate settlements where an employer has failed to adhere to the law. Please get in touch to arrange an appointment.
Citizens Advice Bureaux are a good first port of call and source of free advice and more information on redundancy rights can be found here.
