Negotiating redundancy payment

[atimetobe]

I was made redundant in December as a result of losing a client due to covid and offered a month's salary tax free in exchange for not bringing any action against my company (global business).

I've worked in my role just over a year and during that time was subjected to a campaign of bullying from my direct manager (head of our office). I complained about them multiple times, I have around 10 emails to this effect, including proof of a formal grievance I raised with HR. Nothing was ever done to solve the issue, despite 5 members of my team leaving in the last 6 months due to their behaviour and 3 members taking mental health-related leave (all work anxiety).

I have a solicitor as a condition of signing my redundancy paperwork and we've gone back to my employer to request a bigger settlement due to the above, outlining the timeline of bullying and abuse which I've pulled together from emails. I have no prior redundancy experience and feel I am being totally shafted to be made to leave when my boss is still in the business, despite multiple claims against him (I know they'd had a written warning about the behavior when I first arrived on the team).

Does anyone with more experience than me at this know how likely it would be that I'd be able to negotiate my redundancy package? On one hand I'd like to move forward from what has been an incredibly toxic year but I don't want my ex-employer to get away with enabling such an awful situation.

It will entirely depend on whether the employer feels they are at risk of a claim from you and that will largely depend on timing, It sounds like you are saying this all happened some time ago which would reduce the chances of a successful claim and thus reduce the chances of an increased settlement sum being offered. The potential claim would be constructive dismissal and that requires you to show a breach of contract and to have acted promptly following the alleged breach of contract.

But your own solicitor ought to have told you all of this.

Thank you @HasaDigaEebowai - the last comms I have raising an issue with my boss was late October, I then went off work myself for 1.5 weeks in November with work-related stress and anxiety due to his behaviour. The redundancy came mid-December.

I have been advised by my solicitor but it'd be great to hear any anecdotal experiences. They have cited Whistleblowing rather than Constructive Dismissal.

If you've only been employed just over a year, you have very few rights. You can't claim unfair dismissal unless you feel your selection for redundancy was for a discriminatory reason. You can bring a discrimination claim though.

Your employer will only pay more if they feel there is a viable legal claim you could bring. But your solicitor is far better-placed than anyone here to advise whether you have any viable claim, and therefore whether pushing for more money is likely to be successful.

It sounds like there is a justifiable reason for redundancy (although with such short service, there is no need for a justifiable reason anyway), and unless the bullying related to a protected characteristic, unlikely to be any claim related to that.

But as I say, your solicitor should be able to advise you on what basis he/she thinks requesting more money might be achievable.

Was the grievance ever dealt with? What waste outcome?

@dontdisturbmenow it wasn't - there was no outcome

When you say "they have cited whistleblowing" -who has? Your solicitor? Did you blow the whistle? A grievance about bullying wouldn't be whistleblowing normally.

If your solicitor says you have grounds to argue that something you did constituted whistleblowing, and there is reason to think that as a result, you were selected for redundancy, you might have a case and therefore your employer might be willing to pay more.

Sorry I was skim reading and completely misread the bit that you’d only been employed for a year. I read it as you’d been in the particular role for a year (but employed longer). You can’t claim constructive dismissal if you have less than two years’ service. It sounds to me like your solicitor is clutching at straws but tbh they need to advise you, not us because we don’t have enough detail.

After only one year's employment you don't have any right to redundancy payments AFAIK. Or have you been employed by the firm longer. Your redundancy payment depends on how long you have been employed by your employer. You can try unfair dismissal. But I agree your solicitor should be advising you.

You can’t claim “constructive dismissal” as you were dismissed by your employer (constructive dismissal is when you resign and claim your employer treated you so badly you were effectively dismissed). Your employer claims you were dismissed for reasons of redundancy. However if you can establish that you were dismissed due to raising a grievance about bullying this may be a detriment due to whistleblowing. But your solicitor can advise on the specifics.

Also you can’t claim unfair dismissal as you’ve been employed for less than two years

I'd argue that the fact they've made you an offer and clarified that if you accept, it means you can't bring any further action against them, means that they feel you'd have some kind of a case, or at least a legitimate reason to feel aggrieved. The fact that you've been employed for less than 2yrs would suggest you couldn't bring a case, however, perhaps they are more concerned about reputational damage? You could leave a negative glass door review or potentially disclose the behaviour of your manager to current employees/clients etc. Seems to me you could strike a deal with them on the basis that you don't "bad-mouth" them, a global business.

I am struggling to see what claim you could make here. You can’t claim constructive dismissal because that requires you to resign whereas you were made redundant. As you have been there les than two years, you cannot claim unfair dismissal unless there was some discrimination with respect to one of the nine protected characteristics and you have not indicated that this was the case.

I do not understand what your solicitor means by mentioning “whistleblowing”, you haven’t mentioned blowing any whistles. Raising a personal grievance is not whistleblowing in case you mean that. Whistle blowing means raising issues of wider consequence, such as tax evasion or ignoring industry safety standards, whilstleblowing does not relate to personal matters such as bullying or even discrimination.

There is certainly no harm in negotiating but to be honest, assuming you were paid your notice as well, you probably haven’t done too badly and should not underestimate the mental stress of taking things further.