Being made redundant

[Chickens123]

I found out a few days ago thAt the institution I work for is closing. We all found put via a kind of 'leak' in a the company's on line forum. There was a general email sent out a day or so later. But since then nothing. I've tried to contact my line manager who is 'away'. Well maybe she is away but I think she is avoiding me.
The head office is 50 miles from my home and I've just come out of hospital ( on,y a short stay but I'm not well enough to go up and see her I person) as far as I have Ben told its business as usual and all us staff must just carry on until a final decision is made.
I'm a single parent with no other means of support. I wan to tell them to screw their job, and I feel really aggrieved this has happened and no one is giving us any information. As I am a contract employee my redundancy pay will be £1000 even though I have worked for them for over 10 years.

Does anyone heave any ideas.

Have you contacted HR?

Doesn't sound good, but perhaps they genuinely don't have any solid information. It would certainly be sensible for them to communicate now there are rumours flying around though.

What do you mean by "contracted" employee? Redundancy pay is based on length of service only, so if you've been there 10 years you should get a week's pay per year of service, or more if you're over 41.

Just got in touch with HR who say they have no information other than the office is closing and jobs will be found for as many as possible.
I have to re apply for my post every year and as part of my contract my ' redundancy' is set at a small fixed amount. I do belong to a union and have access to employment rights advice. So I do have somewhere to go as it were. Just the shock of it all on top of everything else has made me quite ill. I have to go into work at short notice on Saturday and it's a long journey. My instinct is to tell them to f**k their job.
Thanks for the advice it pointed me in the right direction and made me see a bit of objectivity. X

Ps I'm 47 and have been working there for 12 years I think! Seems like a life time.

By the sounds of it, you will have continuous employment for the twelve years and your redundancy pay should be based on this. I think it would be a good idea to contact the union and ask them to look over your contract documents and let you know what they think you are entitled to. It may help to know exactly what you are entitled to if your position is made redundant.

Um...well they don't get to "set" your redundancy at below the statutory amount. It's continuous employment that matters. Anyway, once you've been employed continuously on fixed term contracts for 4 years, you are permanent, whether your employer likes it or not!

Sounds like it is all being mishandled and consultation/communication isn't being done properly. If you have a look at the Acas website it has a comprehensive guide to redundancy process, including the statutory processes that must be followed, particularly where there are potentially groups of people losing their jobs. You should be pushing your union on this.

Tempting as it may be to walk away, with 12 weeks redundancy pay owing to you, I'd advise you not to!

Thanks. The HR called me and just said what I knew already. The building was closing and no decisions had been made. I think it's time I looked at ACAS again. As I am one of the old timers I'm not that well liked. They like people who do the job for a year or two and then move on.
Two or so years ago I kept being given the shittyest work to do, or work I had not been trained to do and then hauled up in front of line manager for not doing my job. I made a fuss and got ACAS involved. Since then it's been pretty grim. Been accidentally cc ed in on some emails saying how bad my work is, how I can't cope etc. it's made me feel like shit, but I'm not giving in to this I think in hindsight they knew they were in trouble two years ago and tried a bit of constructive dismissal which didn't work. Things are quite a bit clearer now!