Redundancy while abroad

[chocolatechipcookiedough]

Has anyone had experience of being made redundant while living abroad? We're in Asia on an expat contract and DH has just been told that he's being moved on but they don't have a job for him back in Europe either (we don't want to go anywhere else and they know this so they haven't looked at other areas for jobs).
To be honest this is probably the best thing that could happen for us - we're totally over the expat lifestyle thing, want to be closer to family etc etc etc. and we have somewhere we can go without too much trouble. But it has come as a bit of a surprise and while we're happy about it, we don't know what to actually do now - this moment - this weekend!
They haven't talked dates or figures yet and it's all amicable at the moment but the company hasn't had the best year financially (though not in trouble - just not paying bonuses) and we're worried they might try and play dirty when it comes to figures - in fact we don't even know what figure we should expect! Do we need to see an employment lawyer? could they actually help with anything? They only told us on Friday so we've talked about what we want to do eventually and figured out the practical stuff but what else should we be doing to make sure we're not screwed over?? Any advice welcome!!

[castlesintheair]

On Monday I would establish if he has to work out his notice, go on gardening leave, or just go. See what terms they come up with and if you're not happy, go to a lawyer. I'd see one anyway just to check. Every time DH and I have been fired made redundant in the past we have used employment lawyers. It was standard practice in The City. If you don't already know a good local lawyer, there's a very famous world wide firm that is the best in this area. We still use them now that we are employers. PM me if you don't know it/want the name. They probably have an office where you are. Good luck - it sounds like the timing of it is right for you.

[chocolatechipcookiedough]

Thanks so much Castlesintheair - I've sent you a PM. I thought it was standard practice too but DH doesn't seem so keen.... very frustrating that it's all out of my control - and DH has never done this before either so hopefully he'll negotiate hard! It is the right timing but it's still stressing me out - I've no idea how much they'll offer us and whether we're in the slightest bit reasonable in what we've calculated it should be. Hopefully going to have a chat with someone a bit more experienced later on today. We also told some friends last night over a bottle of wine - we needed to try and make it real.

Now to work out schooling..... think that's probably a topic for another thread.

thanks for replying

[Saltedcaramellavacake]

Your DH's contract/expat deal letter should have the terms for repatriation, even if it doesn't cover all of the redundancy terms. Ours covers all repatriation expenses, for example, in the case of redundancy. Do you have something like this?

[LIZS]

It may depend on whether his contract refers to local terms, uk terms or wherever the company is registered. Has he paying into a local welfare system ? Did he work for the same company before this posting?

[chocolatechipcookiedough]

Thanks for answering. We've now found and read the contract and it deals with repatriation and notice so I think they'll just follow that for the fixed moving costs, notice etc which is generous enough so that's good (and a relief that it's in black and white) but We have no idea what to expect in terms of a payout - or if we get one at all. He's been with the same company years and he's under a uk contract so I guess I need to find a uk employment lawyer.

[Saltedcaramellavacake]

Do you have his UK contract of employment? That should tell you if he gets an enhanced redundancy (like £X per year of service) or just statutory, which is not very much.