REDUNDANCY PAYMENT ADVICE

Our specialist solicitors provide qualified advice on redundancy payment law and on all other matters that are related to employment disputes in the United Kingdom. Our no win no fee claims are totally risk free and if we do not win your case, you do not pay any legal fees or expenses whatsoever. We offer free initial advice without obligation. Just call us using the free phone number or complete the contact form and our employment law solicitors will be pleased to assist you.

In order to claim a redundancy payment certain criteria must be met. An employee must have been dismissed due to the whole business closing down or there must no need for workers in the employee’s particular field. Additionally, in order to claim the employee must have been in continual employment with the business for at least two years up until the date when their employment was terminated.

Although many employers will pay more on a voluntary basis the maximum statutory redundancy payment is £9,300 and this is calculated using a nominal maximum weekly pay figure of £310 (a lesser figure if the actual weekly pay was less) using the following formula :-

• the maximum number of years which may be counted is 20
• half a week's pay for each year over 18, but under 22
• one week's pay for each year in which they were over 22, but under 41
• one and a half week's pay for each year in which the employee was over 41 years of age

If there is a dispute regarding the amount of the compensation then an application for rectification must be submitted to an Employment Tribunal within 6 months of the date of termination of the employment and thereafter the employers are expected to provide detailed written calculations showing how the redundancy payment was assessed.

If an offer of alternative employment is refused with no reasonable grounds, no claim can be made. If a refusal was reasonably made after consideration of personal circumstances which include health and family commitments then a claim can still be made. The employee has a period of 4 weeks trial in an alternative job, if he so desires, during which time the employee can assess their new position and if it becomes clear that their new job is unsuitable they can terminate the employment themselves and still make a claim.

On some occasions the redundancy is false or fake and is used by an employer as an excuse to dismiss an employee when there are no reasonable grounds for dismissal on the basis that compensation for an unfair dismissal would be considerably higher than the statutory payment for redundancy. In such cases a claim can be made to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. In these cases the compensation that can be awarded is often significantly higher than the statutory payments outlined above.