Leaving after redundancy announcement.

Hi,

On 5th November it was announced the company I work for would be closing at the end of January 2009.

I have since received this in writing, stating that I should regard receipt of the letter as 'warning notice' of my redundancy.

It also states that during the next two weeks there will be both staff and individual meetings as consultation.

It all seems rather vague, does this mean I have been given my notice (I am entitled to 4 weeks and only statutory redundancy pay). I am currently off sick due to a work related injury and have requested this information from my employer but heard nothing.

Could I return to work to find I only have a week or two left of my notice?

Also I am hoping to start my own business as soon as possible, if I leave to do this during the redundancy notice period, will I lose the statutory payment?

Many thanks
Dan

Dear Dan

I think that you should wait until you get notification of the consultations and bring up all your queries at that time. If you are off sick, you still have the right to consultation and if you feel able to attend consultation, you should do so.

Until you know the arrangements for the redundancy it is hard to answer your questions.

However, I would not leave until you know all the facts as some employers actually pay the redundancy pay (not usually notice pay though) if an employee leaves within a defined cut off period before the actual redundancy, again this is something you should bring up during consultations to see what arrangements are being made on this.

However, you may lose your notice pay if you leave before this point is answered.

Once you've had the consultations or further information, please do not hesitate to come back and ask us some more questions.

Hope this has helped.