Redundency

Well, it seems like my factory will be shut down by Christmas and all 84 employees will be made redundent.

Bit of a pi$$er!

Our parent company wants to be out of this market sector and all the dirty work out of the way before they are bought by a bigger company. We are just a bit of the dirty work!

So I now need to find something new to do with my life, that will also keep the wolf from the door.

Idealy like many others in this sort of situation I would like to combine earning money with doing something that i enjoy. A trick that has eluded me so far!

I do have one idea, that I had planned as a post retirement interest, that I now need to do a quick fiesability study on. I may post some questions about this later and it would be great if the orgers could help me decide wether its a goer or pie in the sky.

First things first however, does anyone have any recent (say last 2 years) experiance of redundency? If so would you post or PM details of the terms?
This info will help to strengthen our negotiating position.

I am NOT interested in £, just the terms
ie
Was there a cap on the amount of redundency? (OK if so what was the cap?)
How many weeks pay per year we paid?
Was there a minimum for newer employees?
Was any training offered, if so was there a limit in £, weeks pay, time to complete training etc?
Were people required to work their notice?
What outplacement support was offered, for how long?

Anything I have missed?

If possible the name of the company carrying out the redundencie would be superb

I have not named the company for now because the only real bargining chip we have is their desire to avoid adverse publicity, therefore it pays to keep that option up our sleeve

Thanks All

Have you all been offred a redundancy package?

What are you thinking of doing next?

Matt

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by seedy100

First things first however, does anyone have any recent (say last 2 years) experiance of redundency? If so would you post or PM details of the terms?
This info will help to strengthen our negotiating position.

I am NOT interested in £, just the terms
ie
Was there a cap on the amount of redundency? (OK if so what was the cap?) Depends on the offer
How many weeks pay per year we paid? Statutary minimum is one week per year of service, but only for those with 5 years or more IIRC
Was there a minimum for newer employees? See above - but at one place I got laid off from, I got 6 months salary for 2 years service
Was any training offered, if so was there a limit in £, weeks pay, time to complete training etc? No
Were people required to work their notice? Yes - if they wanted to get the rundancy payment. However this could be negotiated with one firm.
What outplacement support was offered, for how long? Yes, from announcement to actual severance.

Anything I have missed

Make sure that whatever is agreed is then also agreed with the HM Revenue and Customs, to be opted out of the payment limit (forget what the actual official term is) so that you do not end up paying tax on any lump sum payment. The limit is something like 30K before it has to be agreed with the revenue to exempt the scheme

Been made redundant three times. All from IT jobs, so not directly comparable, but I do have some experience of this. See my notes above in red.

I hope this turns out well for you and your colleagues. The magic trick is to sort out a new job for soon after being made redundant, so you redundancy payment can be used as a windfall to help pay the mortgage off early or similar. Try to view this as an opportunity to get doing somthing that makes you happy, rather than just paying the bills.

[glade]

Redundancies are taking place in my factory too, so my sympathies go out (of course if you want the package, which a lot of people in my place do, then fair play to you).

The deal in our place is 1 month salary for every year with the company. Not aware of a cap.

Tax free limit is about 30K as someone has stated, but people here are doing things with pensions to avoid tax.

Yeah I have been layed off a few times, but I got bugger all out of the companies that did it to me, that the TV sector for chew you and spit you out.

Went and changed jobs I'm alot happier now, though its dam hard work but worth the effort.

I would speak to citzens advice, that would be a good starting point, also if things do get ugly first 30 mins with a solictor is few, once threated sue unless they paid up. ythye paid up in the end.

For a new jon i would say find something you love/enjoy doing and see if you can make money out of it. I know what i want to do, with work it just gonna take me a while too get there.

Well best of luck with finding a new job, ask away no quesion is a silly one!

Thank for the replies so far!

Alpinistarhero
There is no package on the table yet, we are just entering a 30 day consultation period where negotiations will take place.

As for whats I do next - who knows.
I have some ideas but nothing concrete yet.

Luckypants
Thanks for the info.
Any details on the company that gave 6 months pay for 2 years service.
That could be very useful.
The tip about negotiating with the revenue is a good one, for those getting more than £30K - not me unfortunatly I only have 3 years service.

Glade
Any chance of the name of the company and and something in writing?

Bluethunder
I hope that things will turn out well. This will be my 4th redundency!
On each occasion I have gone back into manufacturing, currently as an Operations Manager - god forsaken job that I dont intend to do again!

Thanks again for the feedback so far.
When the offer is finalised I will post up details in the hope that it will help someone else.

PS Gizz a job

[Luckypants]

National Power. Pretty sure that I haven't broken any agreements by mentioning the name.

Also note that the negotiation with the revenue is not on an individual basis. Your compant need to go to the revenue to get the scheme exempted from any rules regarding taxation above the 30K threshold. It costs the company no more and gives the folks getting a good pay off much more.

[peterco]

A couple of links for you.....

http://www.berr.gov.uk/employment/redundancy/index.html

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employme...rJob/index.htm



pete

I was made redundant from Iceland Foods (IT position) a little over 2 years ago.
Because they were laying off more than a certain number of people (I think the limit is about 90 - 100), they were obliged by law to give 90 days consultation.

Secondly, because we were IT and had access to "sensitive data", we were required to take "paid leave" - which basically meant that we were sent home on the day that consultation was announced and were not allowed back on the premises without an invitation until our employment was terminated (some 3 months later).

Finally, the bit about pay ... we were actually given either a weeks pay or £250 (
whichever was the smaller) so working in IT that meant £250 for every FULL YEAR of service completed.

Three BAD things about this:
1. The previous round of redundancies were offered a much better remuneration package (I think it was something like a full weeks pay for every year plus a month or 2 or 3's extra as a "sweetener") - we didn't get this cos it was "wholesale redundancy (i.e. so many staff going - in total around 400!).
2. Although I'd worked for Iceland for 11.5 years only the last 5.5 were continuous years service
3. I actually got a job offer 2 weeks before I was due to be "officially made redundant" and my new employer wouldn't/couldn't wait an extra 2 weeks for me to start ... which meant I had to hand my notice in, which meant ... NO REDUNDANCY PAY

Still ... on the upside ... I had just had 10 weeks sat on me ar$e earning full pay
PLUS, I decided to go and do contact IT work (something I'd always wanted to do, but was just "too comfortable" at Iceland to go and do it). So I saw redundancy as my chance for a fresh new start

HTH,
Pete

My redundency is finalised so I will post the information about the final deal so that anyone else who faces the situation has some negotiating information.

My company was in manufacturing, it seems that generaly manufacturing deals are poor, but I dont think this was too bad.

1. Everyone regardless of service got 4 weeks notice, eventually paid in lieu.

2. Everyone got 3 weeks pay per years service (rounded up)

3. A termination payment was made in addition based on performance over the consultation period