In a slight quandry

[bungle1977]

Should I just pull out of seeing the solicitor now? I do sound a little selfish I admit :(

[Moominbaby]

No!!!!! you are not selfish! you are asking for what you are entilted to! and if you do just take it you are in fact doing a diservice to yourself, your coworkers and other designers by leaving these people with the impression that its okay to carry on in this fashion! Don't make me use anymore exclamation marks!!!! Or by god bungle1977 you will be sorry!!!!! no only joking but seriously DO see the solicitor!

[bungle1977]

Ok !!!!! :)

[bungle1977]

My other colleagues have already signed their resignations :(

[bungle1977]

I went to see my boss yesterday and told him I want to go the redundancy, he seemed to think that it was OK. He will put the company into administration and I should be able to claim from the National Insurance Fund. Fingers crossed it will work out fine.

[Katedesign]

Your boss seems to have approached a company in order to keep everyone employed on some basis. He either has to sell the company as it is - a going concern, insolvent but still trading and the new guys take on the staff and all the debts etc. In that case you are part of TUPE which means that your 10 years will count towards any redundancy and (I think) that they have to keep all salaries the same. Or your boss has to put the company into Administration. It may be that the Administrator will keep it trading and try to sell it as a going concern or it will go into liquidation. The liquidator can then sell the 'goodwill' (ie the client list and will also have to sell all the assets to pay the debts (which will actually mean that he will sell all the assets to pay his fee!) You will get redundancy (from the Government which won't be massive but will be something (Google it and you will find out - BusinesslInk website will have info) and you will be able to set up as a freelancer.

A freelancer cannot work exclusively for one company. They are deemed to be employees. Many companies try and take on freelancers that way to get round having to pay Emloyers NI, but it will be spotted.

If your boss has not sold the company and is not able to trade then he has to go to a business recovery firm (who may well tell him it's too late) or an Insolvency Practitioner and quickly.

Do NOT resign. The 'new guys' have not bought the company and have no legal rights. They cannot ask you to resign. If your boss goes for liquidation then you will get any pay owning, redundancy pay, you will be able to sign on, you will get any holiday pay owed to you. If you resign from a job (I think I'm right in saying) that you cannot get unemployment benefit/job seekers immediately.

Good luck with it. I'm sorry that I hadn't spotted all the posts or I would have put my twopennyworth in earlier.

I have been through a couple of company liquidations and they are not good for anyone concerned.

[bungle1977]

Thanks for this Katedesign. I haven't even received a notice of redundancy yet and my existing full time employment contract ends on the 17th Feb.

My boss doesn't want to take the company into administration and thinks that statutory redundancy is negotiable. I explained to him that I am entitled to 1 weeks pay for every year worked and his reply was "Oh I see". It is getting very tedious now.

I just want out as quickly as possible. I don't know what I can do in the meantime. *sigh*

[ARRIVALS]

I haven't even received a notice of redundancy yet and my existing full time employment contract ends on the 17th Feb.

You havn't mentioned this before. I was under the impression you had a long term contract that went on for a number of months or so.

If your full time contract is due to expire on 17th Feb, you're in a pretty crappy position. Legally they don't have to renew your contract, they don't have to pay you compensation and they don't even have to offer you any jobs on a freelance basis.

Have you spoken to a solicitor or anything yet? If not I'd do it quickly.

[bungle1977]

Legally they don't have to renew your contract, they don't have to pay you compensation and they don't even have to offer you any jobs on a freelance basis.

This is full time employment and the contract will change to freelance/sub-contractor when the agency I work with will be bought out by this larger group.

Which is why they are offering the freelance route, the option I am not going to take and I am certainly not going to hand in a resignation letter. I have been talking to my solicitor for the past couple of weeks or so, he advised me that this is bordering on illegal and I could have a good case in a tribunal. Have spoken to CAB and NABS, going to the Job Centre on Tuesday just to see what I am entitled to, bashing out my CV at the moment to recruitment agencies also. This could get quite messy.

In short I am redundant whichever way I look at it.

[bungle1977]

this is something that I pulled out of an email that was sent to me...

"What you can say to ------- is that what we will probably do is just cease trading in ------ and let an administrator sort it out. We will set up another company over at ------ called ------ and it will employ you, and have sub contract arrangements with the other two. (Essentially ------ will not be with us). The more you think about it the more attractive that is. It's the easy solution. We can be operational in 24 hrs on that basis without all this Hassel."