Notice Period and Alternate Employment

My job is/was 1 of 14 made redundant with effect from 19 March.

I am entitled to 3 weeks notice.

I was offered alternate employment and have accepted the four weeks 'trial period' starting 22 March.

It's very doubtful that I will accept the new position.

My question is this - If at the end of the trial period, I decline the offer of 'suitable alternate employment' and revert to the redundancy situation, am I then entitled to the 3 weeks notice period, or have I sort of worked my notice during the trial period ?

None of the other redundancies were allowed to work their notice period and were paid in lieu.

You will need to ask your employer what the arrangements will be. Obviously if no one else had to work their notice period and was given the money in lieu, hopefully you shouldn't be penalised because of trying out a possible alternative job, but you need to ask them.

Thank you.


The problem with asking my employer what the arrangements will be, is that they will choose the cheapest option even if that would deny me any entitlement.

(They have previously attempted to cause me 'to suffer detriment' as Employee Rep by having only me work my notice. This was prior to the current offer of alternate employment, and was to make me available as an accompanying person during the other guys' final interview/meeting)

In my own mind, the fact that my own situation, having accepted the trial period, would 'revert to redundancy situation' suggests that I should be sort of 're-noticed' and given the 3 weeks payment in lieu.

The other employees were actually forbidden from working their notice. "We're not going to allow you to work your notice" was the (verbal) phrase used. Their notice periods varied from 3 to 9 weeks. They were paid in lieu.

I suppose my question is more - Does/Can the notice period run concurrently with the trial period ?

If not would anyone know which is the relevant Rule/Regulation within the relevant piece of legislation ? ERA/Tupe/TULR/etc

I wasn't clear enough.

There is no piece of legislation saying that if an employee refuses an alternative job as being unsuitable after a trial period, he/she must be given notice again.

Employment law just isn't usually that prescriptive. It is usual for trial periods to be during a notice period, the whole point being that until an employee has been served notice that their existing job is ending, they don't need a trial period in a new job. So trial periods usually happen during a notice period.

In terms of specific legislation around redundancy, it's actually fairly limited, and is about consultation, information and redundancy pay. Other than that, the requirement is to follow a reasonable procedure and not discriminate against various protected groups.

People who are being offered alternative employment aren't protected from suffering a detriment I'm afraid, the normal consensus would be that they are at an advantage as compared to their colleagues who have no such opportunity to keep a job.

You mention about not being 'allowed' to work notice, as if people wanted to but were prevented from doing so. That would be unusual, obviously. Normally language like 'not required to work notice' would be more common, but it makes no difference, unless there are people who would rather work than just get paid.

You mention TUPE so I assume the proposed new job is with a different employer, but that wouldn't make a difference.

As an employee rep, I'm sure you've read it already, but Acas's guide to redundancy has the most comprehensive information about both legal requirements and reasonable procedures for redundancy.

http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=877&p=0

Thank you. Very much.



I work in a very much 'over-regulated' industry where there are differing definitions between 24 hours and a day, and again between a week and a different kind of week , so I tend to look sometimes for straight black and white answers

Your post and info helps me greatly to put in a new perspective and answers my question(s)