Conflicting notice period - rights?

[marellocherry25]

I strongly suspect my bother is about to be given the choice between furloughing or taking voluntary redundancy.

His employment contract says he has 1 month's notice period. However, the internal HR portal says 2 months' notice in his employee profile.

Given the voluntary redundancy will pay the notice period this changes what he would choose. Does anyone know if the employer would be obliged to pay the longer one?

His contract would take precedence over what it says in the HR system, which could of course be wrong -incorrect information is recorded in these things all the time.

Is there any reason to think his notice period should be two months? Eg if he is a manager and all other managers in the organisation are on two months' notice?

Yes, it would be standard for someone of his level to have a 2-3 month notice period (which is why he didn't double-check his contract). The company is pretty inconsistent so there's no internal paperwork to prove etc.

He's been there just under 2 years, unfortunately.

Unless he can get another job quickly, surely it would be better for him to take furlough, regardless of his notice period? Then if he loses his job later, he might have gone over two years and be entitled to redundancy pay, and can at that point argue for two months' notice if he feels he has a case to.

But in the meantime, why not furlough?