Compulsory or voluntary Redundancy

Please Help Im so confused what to do !!

My employer of 21 years has told me that they are closing my office and moving to another location nowhere near me, the meeting i had with the managment they told me i need to choose between Voluntary redundancy or redeployment to another site in the city working 9-5 but my hours i currently work and have for my whole service have been 6.30pm till 12.30am to allow me to look after my children when ill or off school and picking them up after school....my questions

1. Is this fair as It would make life very diffucult?
2. Surely Im not accepting voluntary and if they can find me a similar job and hours this would be compulsory
3. whats the diffrence between Compulsory and voluntary Redundancy and the implications if i take either.....sorry for all the questions but im so stressed over all of this....any help would be great
Regards
Lesley

Hi Lesley

You are right this would have to be compulsory redundancy, not voluntary. If they offer you a suitable job on the same or very similar terms and conditions, and you refuse it, you would lose your entitlement to redundancy and therefore any redundancy would be voluntary.

If the job is in the same city it may be difficult to prove it's not suitable in terms of location, however the hours are completely different and not suitable for you. When deciding what's suitable, your employer should take into account personal circumstances - these hours would be a dramatic change for you and would have an unnecessary negative impact on your family compared to your current arrangement.

In terms of money, they may be offering the same as compulsory redundancy as a package, so you need to check that. However I do think you should press for it being compulsory. If you have any insurance with your mortgage or anything similar that kicks in when you lose your job, it may not apply if you take voluntary redundancy. Taking voluntary redundancy rather than compulsory may also impact on any benefits you want to claim while you are out of work.

I'd go back to them, say thank you for the offer of the other job, but you are not able to take it up. Say you do not consider this to be a suitable alternative to your existing job, so any redundancy that results from your decline of the other job should be compulsory rather than voluntary.

It may well be that they don't realise, and think that as they are offering you another job your redundancy would have to be voluntary, but the job offered must be suitable for you and this isn't.

Thankyou for your reply, Bit scarey to be honest, just hope they will listen to my issues with regards to the hours, Big bank , Big HR department so they have all the knowledge and experince of what they can and can't do.
If anybody else has advice please feel free to write
Regards
lesley p.s once agin thankyou face2facehr