Advice on working notice after being made redundant.

[SarahL2]

My sister was made redundant on Monday (11th)

After the meeting in which she was told of her redundancy, she was escorted to the back door by her boss and told that she did not have to come back in again.

Her official 2 weeks paid notice starts tomorrow (15th). With her last day on the 29th (1 day before she hits 3 years service!!!) There is a notice up on the work notice board which states that people will not be required to work thier notice period but my sister has nothing in writing at home to confirm this. She does think shae could get a copy of the notice quite easily though.

Her boss has now decided that he made a mistake and that she should have worked those 4 days. He now wants her to come in during her redundancy leave to make up the 4 days she has missed at his behest or else he will withhold pay for the missed hours...can he do this?

She really needs the money as she has no idea where her next paycheck is coming from but she is in bits and cannot face going back in.

She's even in tears at the thought of having to go in tomorrow for a meeting with this boss.

Can she ask for the meeting to be offsite and could she bring a friend for support.

Any help would be very much appreciated. It's so gard to hear her crying on the phone

bump

anyone?

What's the meeting about? Is it about his request for her to come in to work again?

She can certainly ask for the meeting to be off site if she would find that helpful, but there's no particular legal requirement for him to comply.

She can ask to bring a friend for support, but again there's no reason for him to agree to that.

If it's a disciplinary hearing or something similar, she is entitled to bring a colleague or union rep, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.

I think she has a very good argument for not going back in. She was personally advised that she didn't need to return to the office, and the workplace have also been formally notified via noticeboard that no one is required to work his/her notice. Your friend was given notice of redundancy on 11th May and both her boss and the noticeboard confirm that she is not required to work out that notice.

What about the redundancy process as a whole, is she satisfied that it was fair? Is there a union involved or any other consultation, employee representatives or anything? Is there an HR dept she can talk to?

She works for a large high street store.

She has know there are going to be redundancies for a while and all staff were made to re-interview for thier jobs using a set of pre-set questions. She says that there was no chance she would score highly given the questions chosen and that she is aware that other members of staff were coached through thier answers to ensure they scored highly.

She does not agree with the reasons given for redundancy. She has had to have 2 wednesdays a month (maximum) for therapy sessions. She is within her rights to take these as unpaid work time but chose instead to take them in her own time. She supplied the manager with a list of these suggested dates as far in advance as she could so these could be worked into the rota. Where it was not possible to accomodate the sessions (only happened once) she moved the appointment. The list in advance was the suggestion of the manager. Their reason for redundancy is that she is inflexible, had to have most wednesdays off and the manager had trouble organising the rota around her!

She has now been told she doesn't need to go in for the meeting today as the boss in question has started his paternity leave. He told her last night though that he thinks he could have told her of her redundacy on the 28th when her final day of employment is the 29th and had her work the interim!! Surely this is wrong as she would then only have 1 day notice! Based on this idea, e has advised her she now owes him 2 weeks work which he won't be paying for!!!

This is a new manager - she doesn't think he knows what he is doing and is possibly in trouble for telling her to go home on Monday. A HR guy I know said this is his mistake though and he doesn't think he can make my sister work/pay for it. Is this right?

I don't think there is a union.

He also made the mistake of advising her of her risk of redundancy (ie she had a very low score) and telling her she was redundant on the same day. Apparently, this should have been done in two meetings but he mashed them together.

She has now been left to deal with the deputy manager who my sister does not like because she finds her bullying and rude. She cannot go to the boss above her as this is the rude womans boyfriend!

She's so upset, it's awful to hear her cry on the phone. She's going to try to get to the CAB today and have advise her to try calling ACAS too. I have a feeling she is going to end up being bullied out of her final pay by this company but we're going to try for her...

Last night her plan was to call ACAS this morning, go for her job center meeting at 1ish then head over to CAB so hopefully she's had some good advice by now. I told her I was on hand if she needed me but she hasn't called.

I'm hoping this means she's Ok and not crying in a heap somewhere.

She's my baby sister so I am a little protective

She has in writing the details of her redundancy with reasons and she was supposed to be getting the notice off the board today detailing that no-one would be asked to work their notice. She has written a letter back argueing against the reasons for redundancy - not because she wants her job back anymore, just for her pride I think - this needs to be dropped off.

It just seems all so mean and disorganised. I expeted better from such a large retailer!