Long - any employment lawyers - help needed pls re redundancy

[MizZan]

Hi - appealing to anyone who knows employment law well, really. It's kind of a complicated situation.

My employer, a very small US-based company (I work for the UK division) just called me up and told me I've been made redundant, with 30 days notice. No one else from the UK organization has been made redundant. My employer told me this with no consultation, no mention of a redundancy package, no mention of finding another possible job for me within the company, and no written notice. I've been with the company for over 5 years, though with two maternity leaves in there. I'm a relatively expensive employee for them, and also only work part-time, and have only just been back from maternity leave for 4 months. None of these were mentioned as reasons for the redundancy (only reason given was need to make budget cuts), but I'm sure they figured pretty largely in the decision.

On top of this, the company's been having big financial problems and owes me money for consultancy I did for them last summer (when I was on maternity leave), as well as over $25,000 in unpaid sales commissions, which I've earned since coming back from maternity leave in September. I've been assured many times that this money is "coming soon", but no sign of it. Obviously I've been getting increasingly frustrated demanding this money from them and I'm sure that too has figured in the decision to make me redundant.

To complicate matters even further, I didn't get written revisions made to my contract when I returned from maternity leave, to specify my commission rate (which was raised, in lieu of giving me a raise in base salary). I simply relied on an oral agreement with the company's owner, though the director of sales was also aware of it.

So in this situation, I guess my questions are:

1. have they followed all the rules they should have, re making me redundant? If not, is there anything I can actually do about it?
   
   
2. given all the money they owe me, what recourse do I have to recover this? The company keeps almost no cash in the UK, and just wires over money once a month to pay UK employee base salaries - would there be any way to compel them to pay from the US, where the cash is? They are still saying they're going to pay it, btw, but given past experience and the fact that I basically have no leverage over them, I really doubt this is going to happen.
   
   I am reluctant to take this to an employment tribunal, in part because I don't quite know what rights I have here and whether they're actually enforceable. Also reluctant to drop lots of money on a solicitor, unless they can actually do something to help. Would anyone be able to help with legally-informed views on this?
   
   thanks in advance, from a very discouraged MizZan

[mytwopenceworth]

well, i know that anyone can be made redundant. if the job no longer needs doing, or doesnt need doing in the place it was (eg town) or the business is going under. they cant make you redundant and then give the job you were doing to someone else)

you are entitled to a redundancy payment if you've been working over 2 years (i think its 2). if you think its not all in order, then you take it to tribunal.

if theyve got employees in the uk and operate in the uk then i am reasonably sure they have to adhere to uk employment law. you could phone ACAS for advice.08457 474747

[mytwopenceworth]

ok, that wasn't very clear!!

"well, i know that anyone can be made redundant - for example, if the employer can show that the job no longer needs doing, or doesnt need doing in the place it was (eg town) or the business is going under.

(they cant make you redundant and then give the job you were doing to someone else)

[smittenkitten]

they need to give you written notice to make the redundancy enforceable. you are entitled to 1 week's notice for every year of service, so 30 days is not sufficient.

they need to have fair and objective reasons for selecting you for redundancy. you don't say whether you are the only person doing your job or one of several. particularly if you are one of several they need to share with you what the selection criteris were.

if your commission is contractual you probably have a claim for unlawful deductions from wages.

sounds like you have a good case for unfair dismissal/sex discrimination; however given how much they owe you, it might be pragmatic to agree not to bring a claim if they jst give you what they owe you. Is there someone you can negotiate with who knows how weak their position is - an HR dept? the MD?

[prufrock]

US employment law (in non unionised workplaces) is a lot less stringent than UK law with regards to redundancy. It sounds like they are following what would be normal practice in the US. I think a starting point would be to contact ACAS and get a copy of redundancy legisation here in the UK and send it, together with a friendly-ish e-mail pointing out that your employment is governed by UK legislation, to your employer. It sounds as if it would be pointless trying to fight the actual redundancy decision (tbh I wouldn't want to work for them anymore if they treat you like this)so you just need to make sure you get the best severance package possible.

[MizZan]

thanks for advice, everyone. Keep it coming, please. I am not planning to fight the actual redundancy as I am not interested in continuing to work for them under the circumstances. I am not sure if I'd have a claim for discrimination or not - would welcome any other thoughts on this from people with experience in these matters.

In answer to the other question, I am the only person doing my job (European sales). I think their plan is just to redistribute my accounts to salespeople in the US.

The problem with sending them friendly-ish emails is that either they'll ignore it, or I will get a friendly-ish email right back, saying they plan to pay what they owe me. I have plenty of those already...but no money .

so if they told me over the phone that I'm redundant, but haven't put it in writing yet, then I'm not really redundant yet? Can they send me a letter and back-date it or is that illegal?

[Dozeynoo]

When there was a round of redundancies in my previous job we were all called in for an en-mass meeting and told that there were going to be redundancies with names being announced 1 week later. One week later the people for the chop were called in for a one-to-one meeting and then told to clear their desks and that they were leaving with one months pay in leiu of notice.

The now ex-employees each successfully sued the company for not following proper procedures and were awarded not inconsiderable damages.

In the next round of redundancies (18 months later) the company obviously had got the procedure a bit more sorted. We had the en-mass meeting with a list of names posted at the end of it. This time I was on the list. We then each had a one-to-one meeting with a manager to be told that we were likely to be made redundant and that we would have a second meeting with our manager the following Monday. The following Monday we had another one-to-one meeting with the manager who confirmed we would be made redundant, confirmed our length of service with the company and hence the value of our statuatory redundancy pay. They also confirmed that they had to give us three months notice as that was the notice period specified in our contracts, but that we would only be required to work the first month of that.

That last month in the office was pretty grim...

[MizZan]

bump...