Redundancy?

[Slarti]

A couple that are friends of my wife have been made redundant, with immediate effect, while they are away on holiday, but somebody is doing part of their job, today.

Am I right in thinking that if someone is made redundant the post has to be vacant for 3 months - well not to exist rather than be vacant.

Also, don't you have to give notice?


I've not been in employment for well over 20 years and so am a bit rusty on things like this.
Slarti

[gryffron]

Am I right in thinking that if someone is made redundant the post has to be vacant for 3 months - well not to exist rather than be vacant.

Kind of. They can't replace the exact same post, within 3 months, without offering the redundant person their job back. But they can either:
Modify another existing role to include "doing part of their job".
Take on a new person to do a subtly different job role. Which might include doing some of the same tasks. And might be paid less money than the previous employee. If the new role is "equivalent" to the old one, then the potentially redundant employee should be offered it first, rather than redundancy. Whether it is indeed sufficiently "equivalent" would be up to a tribunal to decide.

Yes, they should have received appropriate notice (or pay in lieu of). But this may be as little as 1 week notice. i.e. the week they were on holiday. IF they have been employed <2 years, and depending on their contract.
https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/notice-periods

If they have been there less than 2 years, they can't claim unfair dismissal anyway. But they are still owed any redundancy pay AND holiday pay they were due.

gryff

[Slarti]

Not sure how long they have been there, but the thing that worries me is that their home is part of their remuneration.

Obviously they need to get ACAS involved, ASAP after getting home.

Beyond that, who knows?

Slarti

[melonfool]

Am I right in thinking that if someone is made redundant the post has to be vacant for 3 months - well not to exist rather than be vacant.

Kind of. They can't replace the exact same post, within 3 months, without offering the redundant person their job back. But they can either:
Modify another existing role to include "doing part of their job".
Take on a new person to do a subtly different job role. Which might include doing some of the same tasks. And might be paid less money than the previous employee. If the new role is "equivalent" to the old one, then the potentially redundant employee should be offered it first, rather than redundancy. Whether it is indeed sufficiently "equivalent" would be up to a tribunal to decide.

gryff

There's no legislation to say they can't recruit for 3m though, is there?

It's just that, if they do, they could have a claim for unfair dismissal as the redundancy was a sham.

Mel

[melonfool]

Not sure how long they have been there, but the thing that worries me is that their home is part of their remuneration.

Obviously they need to get ACAS involved, ASAP after getting home.

Beyond that, who knows?

Slarti

Was there no consultation? There is a legal duty to consult and no-one would accept that any consultation, no matter how brief, was credible if undertaken while the affected people were on holiday.

The previous poster is correct, if less than 2 years service they can't bring an unfair dismissal claim, but they can bring other claims - such as wrongful dismissal, which is what you bring when your contractual notice period has been breached. And you can bring that in the small claims court so far lower costs than the tribunal.

They can also bring discrimination claims.

I'm not sure how it works with the home being part of the remuneration, but I would imagine that they would have a longer contractual notice period if that is the case - you need to find out what their notice period was, whether they have been given it or compensated for it and whether any compensation included compensation for the loss of home.

Contact ACAS and ask them to lodge a pre-claim or whatever it is called now.

Mel

[Slarti]

Thanks Mel.

I know no more than I have already posted, but I will summarise your advice ad get Mrs S to pass it on to the couple in question.

Slarti