Anyone got any experience of redundancy and relocation?

[NellyBluth]

Dug out an old nn for this.

I've been trying to find something online myself but can't find anything specific.

If my firm mergers with another, larger firm, which is based in a completely different city, and they then decide to amalgamate certain departments into the larger firm's offices in the different city, can your potential redundancy package/offer be affected in any way by you refusing relocation?

To put it in context, we're talking about two cities hundred of miles away, so it would be a proper relocation, not just a different journey to work.

Unless you have a mobility clause in your current contract stating that you can be required to work hundreds of miles away your redundancy package shouldn't be affected.

As a general rule anything more than around 50 miles or 90 minutes further than your previous workplace would not qualify as a suitable alternative.

If your function is relocating hundreds of miles away that means your post as it is will be redundant.

Either you will be entitled to redundancy if you choose not to relocate with it or you won't be, it's not a case of redundancy package being affected.

So the only question is whether a relocation hundreds of miles away could be considered a "suitable alternative", which would mean if you refused it you would not be entitled to redundancy pay.

A relocation that far wouldn't be a suitable alternative so you should receive whatever redundancy pay you would normally be entitled to.

In terms of what constitutes a suitable alternative, what's suitable for one person might not be for another and the employer must take personal circumstances into account. So while an additional commute of an hour might be perfectly doable and acceptable to a young single person with no commitments, for a single mother with 3 kids to drop off at various places, it would be reasonable for her to say this is not suitable for me. No general rules.

Thanks, that's kind of what I thought. We suspect that if the merger happens they will try and move all of certain departments to the other city, so technically yes, my 'job' in this city would become redundant. If they did offer relocation it would only be half-hearted as they know hardly anyone will move from our city to the other one. As long as relocation doesn't confuse the redundancy, that it would be an unreasonable relocation, that's fine. Thanks!