Forced retirement/"redundant"

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

Imagine you're a legal secretary in your early 60s working for a partner of the firm of the same age, since 1988. The partner says he's planning on retirement in 2025/6.

Other secretaries who've left haven't been replaced and new ones not recruited, paralegals preferred. The secretary says "that's me gone then." Can they do this on the grounds of redundancy? Or find her alternative work?

I realise the irony of her not knowing but it's a family/matrimonial organisation. It's a family member. Thanks.

Well if her job is no longer required then of course they can.

if she is early 60s now though and the planned retirement is still a minimum of 3 years away then she is going to be getting fairly close to state retirement age herself by then surely? Depending on how early 60s she is is she one of the WASPI women?

@pastabest she's 62 and has worked solidly since 16, widowed no children so I don't think there's an issue with pension contributions. It's the social and usefulness aspect of working she's bothering about.

To be honest, if she's worked there for34 years and is in her 60s, I suspect the redundancy package they offer may be very attractive.

Certainly if the person she works for is retiring and not being replaced, then that role as a secretary is redundant.

Are there other roles in the organisation that she would like to do?

I would hold out for a redundancy payment unless they can offer her a job once the partner has left and she wants to stay on. Would she be interested in doing voluntary work.

Its a redundancy situation. She will be entitled to at least statutory redundancy pay. Based on her age and service is one and a half week's pay for each full year she has worked. Length of service capped at 20 years.

Which, for her, works out at 30 weeks pay. This is tax free.

She will also be entitled to 12 weeks notice on which she will pay tax and national insurance.

Its possible for the employer to pay more but the above is the statutory minimum.

So she'll be 65/66 by the time this happens. And statutory redundancy pay will be quite generous as the pp had said - even more so if the company enhance it. Likely to be the equivalent of another year's salary. Which takes her to or close to retirement age.
If she wants to continue keeping busy and the social element, then would suggest she starts to consider what activities to take up in retirement, volunteering etc. Am sure her secretarial skills could be valued.

Yes they can make her redundant but as others have said she is in quite a good position and charities and volunteer organisations are very low on volunteers at the moment - there are tons of opportunities out there she just needs to look for something that she's really interested in.

There are two issues here, one is underpinned by employment law and the other is personal.

Employment law: As pp have said this would be a redundancy situation. The firm may have a vacancy that they could redeploy the legal secretary to but it is unlikely. I agree hold out for redundancy.

Personal: The partner has done their legal secretary a favour by telling them their plans. They have a few years to think through what they want to do and put in place changes that can either enable them to keep working full time, retire or a hybrid. Encourage her to work through the following (she may have done this):

• financials: what will her pensions be - state and occupational/private, when can she claim them, is there actuarial adjustment for taking occupational/person pension early, current income & expenditure so she knows how much she needs to live on.
• work: does she want to continue working, full time, part time or move to voluntary work? Going from full time to nothing can be a challenge so does she want to slowly reduce hours/days over the next few years. Dropping one day or even 1/2 a day gives you opportunities to explore other options. If she wants to work then help prepare a CV, possibly look at IT courses in word, spreadsheets, PowerPoint etc. so her IT skills are current. Look at what jobs are currently being advertised and the requirements so she can identify skills gaps.
• retirement: what sort of retirement does she want, start looking at how to fill days as suddenly you have a lot of time to fill. This is where reducing hours/days over the next 3/4 years could really help. Start small e.g. Stop working Wednesday afternoon and use the time to do a (new) hobby, go to theatre/cinema, visit a garden centre, have coffee with friends, go to the gym. Use the time to start building a life out of work.
• volunteering: a key aspect you lose when you stop work is status e.g. I’m a legal secretary vs I’m retired. She will have transferrable administration skills many places would value CAB, CAP, local societies, parish/local council etc.
• hobbies & activities: what does she currently do, what would she like to do, travel, learn new skills, develop existing hobbies or find new ones, etc.

Sorry this has turned into an essay focusing on retirement but I get the feeling from your post that the partner has mentioned it now because they are concerned work is everything to your relative and and they want to prepare them. If it’s more mercenary in that they want to save redundancy then see pp regarding redundancy.

There may be.

Thanks everyone for the comments, much appreciated.

Extrapolating wildly here but:

Legal secretaries are a dying breed. (Written with deep sadness: I’m a lawyer!) Most younger lawyers are more tech-savvy and capable of doing their own documents etc. the gap is often filled by paralegals who - ironically - can be exploited more readily than seccies on the promise of a training contract. I would not hold out for another role.

I have never ever known a law firm (including wildly profitable city ones) pay more than stat minimum in a redundancy situation.

Well she’s in for a very nice redundancy package as pop’s have said.

In terms of usefulness etc what about volunteering? Plenty of volunteer roles are very similar to paid work e.g CAB.