In a slight quandry

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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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*
 
bungle1977 said:
I haven't even received a notice of redundancy yet and my existing full time employment contract ends on the 17th Feb.
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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. :icon_eek:

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.
 
ARRIVALS said:
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.
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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.
 
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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."
 
continues

"With ------ you have to explain that his advice relates to employment law. That assumes the company is solvent and trading. When a company ceases to trade or goes into liquidation the employment rights are looked after by the Government. That scenario means no sub contract work for him so if that is his desire then why bother fighting it? We will just start a new co. and structure it as we want- to make money for you and us."
 
I'm not surprised that your solicitor thought that this is bordering on illegal!!! Someone is doing a very dodgy 'phoenix' - or acquiring the company your work with at the moment very cheaply. Undoubtedly they will take you on for a bit as a freelancer (if you are still there) and then drop you.

When the new company (lets call it B) takes over/buys the old one (A) and A hasn't gone into liquidation then TUPE rights WILL exist. You will be able to take them to court and WIN.

If A goes into liquidation then you WILL get redundancy (probably the minimum) from the government.
You will also be able to sign-on for Jobseekers. If you had resigned and then hoped to be taken on (without any guarantee) you would not be entitled to Jobseekers.

So on Friday if A hasn't gone into liquidation and everyone else is going to work at B you need to turn up for work. It is a continuation of employment and you have rights. If A goes into liquidation then you can get your P45, redundancy, job-seekers and then take a look at self-employment. But do take advice.

Don't be too worried... do you really want to work a a bunch of cheats? I've just been through 'redundancy' (after a fashion), got another job and after 3 months they wanted to halve my wages! I resigned on principle! The last company are a bunch of shysters (Sp?) and I didn't want to work for them. They have a policy of keeping everyone on minimum wage. February is going to be tough - but I'm sure I'll be better off out. (Well fingers crossed!)
 
I am a bit worried when Friday come. I won't be signing anything and my boss has given me a redundancy breakdown, will be paid up to 17 Feb plus redundancy will be split and I will receive half this month and the other in March. Have already been to the job centre to get some advice to what i am entitled to and NI contributions. There does seem to be a lot of agencies in a similar situation in a take-over scenario. Will just have to wait til Friday and see what happens...
 
If your boss has put the company into liquidation there shoud be an official liquidator who should give you forms to complete. If he is 'giving' the company away then you have TUPE rights. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
"I will forward your paper payslip and arrange for a formal letter and P45 to be mailed to your home address ------------, ------------, ----------, ------- early next week.

This documentation confirms that your salary and first payment has been made."

So. Thats it. Still no job though but NABS have been an enormous help and I would definitely recommend them.
 
Right OK my boss has asked me to help on a project that I was working on before my redundancy. Can he do that? I thought once a position was redundant that was it...
 
It's fishy but I can't quote chapter and verse; as I understand it, though, the issue is tax fraud as you will have ordinarily received a tax free redundancy settlement where there's subsequent evidence that it wasn't a genuine redundancy.
 
"Under your contract of employment you are entitled to 30 days notice. As we have agreed, you will assist in completing the ---------website in English and German, but you may otherwise take the time of your notice period off to seek other work". My contract finished on the 17 Feb, I hope this doesn't mean I won't get my P45 for another month...
 
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