Redundancy package

[Yetanothernamechange17]

NC for this. DH has been an employee of a company since he left school over 30 years ago. He's been the same frontline grade all that time. Now the company have lòst millions so DH has been offered nearly £30k in redundancy. He says it's too low. I say he's a fool for thinking he can hope for more. They want him out by the end of the month. He doesn't have any good qualifications and doesn't want to do anything in the same industry. The company are arseholes and I think if he doesn't walk away he'll end up with nothing. I am purposefully not naming them but you might guess who it is.

I earn a substantial wage but need his wage for a comfortable living. Without it, we'd struggle a bit.

Would you take the money and go or push for more?

What are their redundancy terms? And have they offered him their standard terms? He's unlikely to get more if they have.

There will be a standard formula for the Redundancy pay so I don’t see how he can get more. I also don’t see how he can get less

Is he being offered redundancy or severance?

There is a gov calculator to work out what he'd be legally owed if its redundancy.

All redundancies will be done on a standard formula. Statutory is half a week for each year so would be 15 weeks so sounds like it's been enhanced, I doubt they will offer more.

I'm guessing that's about a years salary after tax? Don't forget the first £30k is tax free so it's actually worth mort than that in salary terms IYSWIM.
I'd take it. It's a nice cushion.

More like £28,500 which is 9 months pay plus 6% on top. I thought that was pretty average too.

Is he joined to a union? I took Voluntary exit a few years back and my rep was brilliant

I’d take it. There’s lots you could do.

1. Suggest he gets a Christmas temp job whilst he looks for another job
2. If needs be, top up his wages from said Christmas job from the redundancy money
3. Pay off some/all debts
4. Look on it as a fab opportunity to try something new career wise.

Yes he's in a union, a good one. They don't want redundancies to happen, but they are happening and the union says they want people to leave voluntarily. The offer is for DH to go voluntarily.

It’s not unusual for Voluntary to be enhanced
He won’t get more it it’s Compulsory

Is there a risk that their voluntary package is substantially more generous than their compulsory package, if it goes down that route?

Statutory redundancy pay is not good.

This is the thing, he's never known anything else. He has transferable skills but I think he's a bit institutionalised tbh. He's frightened of the big wide world and starting again. I think he thinks he deserves more for his loyalty, but I disagree.

I think he needs to accept he’s probably going to lose his job.
This Company have no reason at all to pay him any more than they need to

I think his employer is being more than fair. That's the risk isn't it, tell them to get stuffed and end up being compulsorily redundant on much less?

He should take the money. I'm in a similar situation, and it's voluntary redundancy. If I had refused this offer, I'd be forced into compulsory redundancy which is less money. There's nowhere he can go with this as the amount is normally standard under terms and conditions of your individual contract. Are his company being transparent in regards to how they have calculated the figure?

Join. Union and ask them.

He needs to come to terms with a lot of things @Hoppinggreen . Originally they said they were under no obligation to offer anything. He's got an opportunity here. But I know him, he'll be stubborn and turn it down. He has to realise it's over. This money will see us through quite a few months giving him ample time to find something else. Unfortunately he feels he's owed more, in a weird way.

Making some assumptions (age 50, earns £40k a year) it looks like double the statutory. I’d take it. If it was only a little more than statutory I’d probably try and push it but double I think is fair enough.

It's all very straightforward. But he's very stubborn.

For me, calculate statutory if it's less take it unless he's aware of previous rounds of redundancy with more generous terms.
£30k will be tax free & 9 months salary is a good cushion to decide on a new plan for the future.

But, after 30 yrs understand the fear of change & starting again somewhere in the big wide world.
Is he hoping to be able to stay if he doesn't take it and lots of others do?

This is the thing, he's never known anything else. He has transferable skills but I think he's a bit institutionalised tbh

Getting a Christmas temp job is ideal then. Will allow him to work for short time in another workplace and see it's not as scary as he imagines. And if he doesn't really like it then it's only for a few weeks.
It's a case of building confidence that he has those transferable skills really.
I had a lot of jobs in my younger days but I've been in my current job for nearly 20 years and am aware I've lost confidence to move again

The thing is what usually happens is voluntary is enhanced, if you reject it will be then compulsory and reduced to statutory only . The same terms will apply across everyone. So it’s not a personalised offer.if they give him more. Everyone gets more. They are doing redundancies as they are in the shit. Not because they have loads of cash swirling round.

@Yetanothernamechange17 - I can understand he is hurt by being made redundant. I left my last job out of choice and after 10 years of working hard for them I didn’t get so much as a bunch of flowers. I know you get paid but I had spent a huge chunk of my young adult life there, working hard, often unpaid overtime as is the norm in my industry. It’s taught me not to be loyal to a company again, and to not let them take the piss. I would take the redundancy but can understand why he is upset.

The problem is, all employees have to drive now, and he's never learned. So he's actually not got the right skills to do it anymore. He won't learn either, as I said, stubborn. So it better he leaves anyway.

I got £5k-ish statutory for 5 years so sounds about right