to think you shouldn't be barred from having a job to go to if you are being made redundant?

[M3lon]

Friend is being made redundant (because his role is disappearing from the company) and the letter from the company regarding the redundancy states he can't have a job lined up already.

AIBU to think that can't possibly be right?

I can understand it when its a voluntary redundancy scheme - but this isn't!

Anyone have any ideas...or know where I could find legal evidence?

What they mean is that he will not be let go early if he secures another role. No company can tell you what to do the day after your stop working for them so he could start work with another company the next day if he wanted to. What he cannot do is ask to leave early and still expect his redundancy.

Shearwater Howmany said it's a "specialist" role: there might not be a job in February. If she goes longer without work than it would take her to earn £10k take-home (leaving aside commuting costs etc.), choosing the redundancy payout would be the worse option. Unless someone has decent savings, then even if they think they will probably have got a job within 3 months (or whatever), it's still a bit risky.

When I was made redundant i got more if I stayed until the end than if I left before the end - golden handcuffs I think it was called.

I would still have got my statutory redundancy but it was doubled to remain in post til the bitter end. I also negotiated with my new employer to start later.

I'm preety sure they have to give time off if interviews come up.

So it is that they want to leave early, not that the company has barred them from taking other employment. Bit misleading there OP, but we'd already guessed that wasn't actually what was said!

It depends, if you work for a Local Authority and are made redundant and you find another job to go straight to, you will not receive any redundancy pay. Redundancy pay is to compensate for the fact you won't be working, not to thank you for the work you've done. If you have another job to go to, you won't be out of pocket, therefore no redundancy pay.
It always pays to not be walking into your new job straight away.

@mygrandchildrenrock That only applies if you are going to a job at the same local authority.

Redundancy payments are a statutory entitlement. Employers cannot make up their own rules.

Redundancy pay is to compensate for the fact you won't be working, not to thank you for the work you've done. If you have another job to go to, you won't be out of pocket, therefore no redundancy pay

And as I pointed out above, this reasoning is flawed because you could easily suffer a loss even if you find another job because it may pay less, only be part-time, have less generous benefits and you've lost your continuous employment benefits. If the company want to get rid of you, they pay you off. What you are doing once you leave them is none of their beeswax.

Bombardier that's not correct. If you go from a local authority to another public sector body (there is a list of them in the regulations) within a 4 week period, then no redundancy is payable. Most people negotiate a start date which gives that grace, unless the redundancy is less than 4 weeks pay.

@Iwouldratherbemuckingout You're referring to the modification order regulations. That is a list of specified associated organisations, and certainly not all public sector bodies.

Ring up a Union that covers his sphere of work and ask, sounds completely out of order.

I'm an employment lawyer. This is a common clause when someone is getting more than statutory entitlement but we generally remove it in redundancy situations.

With RPMO employers there must be a 4 week break.

With other employment it is to do with payments in lieu of notice. Some employers will not want to pay in lieu of notice if the employee has another job lined up.

Can't really advise further without seeing the wording of the letter.

Basically if you are being made redundant but find another job that starts before your last day at the old job it is generally treated as if you are changing your job as you normally would. i.e. resigning from old job and taking up a new job.

If you are being made redundant but find a new job to start after your finishing date you will generally still get your redundancy payment, but if you finish on a Friday/weekend and start the new job on the Monday the old employer can try to get out of paying redundancy as there has been continuous employment. So if that happens, don't tell the old employer.

You are allowed time off for interviews, the employer can not be seen to be making it hard for you to get a new job. It also saves them a redundancy payment if you can find another job before finishing at the old one.

I'm no expert and things might have changed since our experience of redundancy, but this is how it worked when dh was made redundant (twice). He was made redundant by Bosch and they know what they are doing. They brought in independent professionals to help with the whole process of what was going to happen - the legal requirements. And their own professionals to protect their interests and explain what extra they provided. They had people come in from JobCentre Plus, agencies etc. solicitors to cover their backs, they paid up to three times the required redundancy, independent solicitors for the employees to use etc. They had to do things right, particularly because if one thing went wrong for one person being made redundant everyone else's treatment would be reviewed and it could get very costly when dealing with the huge staff numbers they deal with.

I hope your friend finds a suitable job soon. Ideally they would find a job to start after their leaving date where they could get their redundancy payment but also have as little break in employment as possible.

It’s shit though, because you wouldn’t even be looking for a new job if they hadn’t announced your upcoming redundancy.

Definitely starting at least a month after leaving. So it isn't that. It isn't a public sector job so it can't be that either.

I think if its anything it is that he's getting more than statutory...or they have fecked up the paperwork...

I know which I personally believe to be the case.

I'll check with him though. Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply!