Hold my hand, got invited to HR chat UPDATE

[CrazyPenguin101]

Thank you again to all. Will update of the outcome ❤️

Sorry to read your update.

4 months severance (from 3), 2 months notice.

Before I read the update can anyone link back to the original great please? Can't find it

Well done on the settlement and good luck finding a new job really quickly OP, as im sure you will.

Can I ask, because I'm fairly certain this is going to happen to me in the next few weeks, what would the ideal process/timeline be in terms of hearing the news, absorbing and making a counter offer in similar circumstances, as there are clearly some experienced people on here?

Im early 50s, in tech, came off a fairly stellar 5 year run at a startup. Moved to another much less stellar startup just over a year ago as the old place was going through insane shit post ipo. I knew new place wasnt great but they offered me a really good basic (due to prior places rep and my performance there I think) and I've been there for 14 months. They're now about to be 'last ditch' acquired (failing company prior ro my arrival) and I'm anticipating a round of "last-in first-out" redundancies before it goes through. I'm fine with this as it's not going anywhere and everything they promised hasn't materialised, but I'm aware my age and market could make job hunting a challenge so need to negotiate as much of a settlement as possible, if possible.

Do they have to give me a settlement offer after less than 2 years? If they do, how long shall I wait before counter offering. How should I counter offer?

Advice welcome. Apologies for hijacking OP. Really interesting post. Settlement agreements were always kept really quiet where I've worked and I've never been made redundant before.

I'm sorry to hear this - its always a shock, and very horrible to boot. I can only say that in my case I ended up working at twice my previous salary, at work that i loved. I know others who took the opportunity to retrain or to move to something they really wanted to do. In fact for 3 months I got 2 salaries - my pay in lieu of notice and a new job. Once the initial shock has died down you can put out feelers. Give people a chance to help you, they often will if they can.

So sorry OP!

sounds like you’ve got a lots of useful advice and I hope that everything works in the end and you get the best settlement you can

much love x

Unfortunately if you have less than two years service you are not entitled to redundancy at all. You would simply be entitled to work your contractual notice (or be paid in lieu if they didn’t want you to work) and it would be taxable in full in the normal way since notice pay is salary.

Op has chosen to have that one deleted, and has updated here instead. Sensible with negotiations starting.

yeah I know no statutory redundancy before 2 years but how common is it for them to offer you a settlement with some months pay? As happened to OP who was also under 2 years service if I've read it right?

A bit of indulgence to get through such a rough day it's ok, but spending a whole afternoon eating junk food could be setting a precedent that has long-term devastating consequences. Try not to make a habit out of it.
Remember that we are what we eat. You need to ensure that your mind is sharp and your body is healthy to get through the challenge ahead.
Take care of yourself and I wish you all the luck in your job hunt.

Oooh - I'm sorry to hear this. Your boss is really shitty trying to give you a false sense of security. You will be better off somewhere they appreciate you.
Take time to be kind to yourself as it's a big shock. x

A link to the first thread?

Wait, what? You HAVE to have a lawyer to sign off a redundancy?

So without hijacking, I was made redundant in October 24. I had been on maternity leave, and also had brain surgery within that time as I had a brain tumour (I didn't take sick leave for this, it happened while I was on maternity leave).

When the time came for me to return to work, at the meeting (I thought was) to discuss this, they brought in my colleague from my dept (2 of us in the dept). And said there wasn't the need for both of us anymore.

Instead of 2 full time roles as we had previously, there was now only one part time role. And we had to choose between us who took it.

If we couldn't decide they'd score us on some kind of system and then pick.

The choices were:

Both take redundancy
One takes redundancy and one takes the part time role
We fight for the part time role as described above

We both ultimately decided to take the redundancy- I could be a full time mum to my children after a shit few years and my colleague couldn't afford to live on part time wages.

We both just took it and left. I'd been there 7 years and my colleague over 20 years.

But not once were we told we needed a lawyer to look over anything etc.

Do you DEFINITELY need a lawyer when you've been made redundant?

It's been deleted now

Also, I am really sorry to hear this has happened to you. I know it doesn't feel like it right now but you will be OK. I promise

I’m sorry OP. Be kind to yourself xx

I was never offered one and I was made redundant from a huge banking group
i don’t think it is true for all severance packages

I googled it after I read this and it seems sometimes you do need a solicitor (maybe when the package is contested?) but it isn't standard.

well if they have money to burn they might. Or if they think you might have the ability to bring one of the claims which doesn’t require two years’ service such as discrimination. Unfortunately it’s fairly uncommon to just offer you money because they’re nice. They might still get you to sign a settlement agreement if they were paying you in lieu of notice and offer you a small financial incentive payment to do so but you’d have very little negotiating power I’m afraid.

This isn’t correct. You always need a lawyer (or sometimes a specially qualified trade union rep) to sign off a settlement agreement or it isn’t legally binding, However the employer can give you money but not ask you to sign a settlement agreement if they are prepared to take the risk that you take their money and then also bring a claim.

Without signing a settlement agreement you could do that. Some employers won’t be in a position to offer you any more than statutory redundancy, they won’t want to or won’t be able to offer you the extra bit to encourage you to bring a claim and so in such a case they won’t offer a settlement agreement.

So the redundancy payment I took from my employer isn't legally binding?

I remember at the time one of my friends said I should get a solicitor and I mentioned this to the CEO and HR Manager in one of the meetings. And they said no you don't need a solicitor cos this is a "something" redundancy (I think it began with C but I've got a neurological condition and I cannot remember for the life of me what the word was)

A solicitor is only required in a Settlement case not redundancy the two are different.
Redundancy is when your job role is no longer needed by the business, while a settlement agreement (SA) is a legal contract often used in redundancy situations, offering extra money in exchange for giving up your right to sue the employer. Key differences: Redundancy is job-loss due to business need (role disappears), whereas an SA is a negotiated deal to end employment, often with more pay (enhanced payment) than statutory redundancy, but requires waiving future legal claims, giving you control but ending your job.

Yes it’s legally binding (whatever you mean by that) but if you signed a piece of paper saying you won’t bring a claim and that wasn’t certified by a lawyer then that agreement wouldn’t prevent you from bringing statutory employment claims (which are a particular category of employment claims).

so subject to all sorts of things including time limits etc you could potentially have taken the money and brought a claim.

Agree. And sometimes people are put on garden leave for their own protection so they don’t do something daft in the moment and lose their redundancy payment.

She had under 2 years service. Literally no bargaining power whatsoever. They had already offered a decent settlement. If they give her another month she will have done extraordinarily well.