Consultation meeting preparation

I received an "at risk" letter on Wednesday. My termination date, if an alternative job is not found, would be Aug.

I am willing to accept that Aug date as my last date and am not looking to be redeployed. Am I able negociate this, and also gurantee my my severence? Would compromise agreements actually stipulate these factors.

I would imagine there is a discretionary redundancy scheme ie 1 month for every year, but I believe that how my career has been handled from day one at the firm has been questionable to say the least. Is there anyway I can negociate more money, on top of the standard payout?

They have asked me to stay for coverage purposes, Is it plausible to ask for a "retention bonus" bearing in mind in Aug the job market could be even worse that it is now, so why would I stay until Aug. They have asked me to stay for coverage purposes

Are there any other questions that I need to make sure are covered in this meeting?

please let me know if you can assist. I have a follow up meeting on Weds and would like to be prepared

is anyone able to help? my meeting is tomorrow!

Sorry that no one has come back to you, but as I am sure you have gathered there are many questions being posted at this time.

I am not at all sure what your situation is, but technically you should be having consultation in line with the statutory redundancy procedure. During this time you can raise all your queries with your company, including what redundancy payments are to be made, what bonus might be made if you stay on until August, if this is their request, and what would happen to your payments if you managed to secure another position elsewhere and left before August.

Not sure why you mentioned a compromise agreement - have they raised this with you? If so, a compromise agreement usually contains extra payments as a sweetner for doing this as it protects the company from you taking them to an employment tribunal.

I think that you should ask all these sorts of questions at your meeting tomorrow (which I can only assume is the first consultation one?) and come back to us with your queries.

You can also visit the BERR website that is very helpful.

Best wishes

Carol

What would you like me to clarify so that I can tell you my siutation.

Tomorrow is the first consultation meeting after receiving the letter.

August is the date that I have been told would be my termination date as I am at "risk". This is a longer period to cover maternity leave. This has not be requested by me, but I get the impression that I will told I am being done a favour by them extending the term date until then. Is it therefore something that I should defo ask about, ie an incenive bonus to stay?

I mention a compromise agreement as i thought this was the term for the redundancy package additional to the Statutory £350 per week max for some of my age for each year. As for extra "sweetners" I do have a number of issues I could raise, as to whether I have enough grounds to actaully I dont know but it would certainly be good to gain a legal opinion. Would I mention these things to the HR rep. I can imagine that they will try and deflect these away.

Hi

Thank you for your message.

If you are not looking to be re-deployed or be offered suitable alternative employment, you could discuss this in your meeting with your employer. It would be their discretion if they decided to have a compromise agreement drawn up to include this. If you say that you don't want to be offered alternative employment, and your employer does not make one, you won't be taken to have unreasonably refused a suitable offer and will be entitled to a redundancy payment unless your contractual redundancy scheme states otherwise.

Compromise agreements are sometimes used in redundancy situations where an employer does not comply with the law (e.g. through failing to consult properly, failing to use fair selection criteria etc.) an employee can complain to a tribunal that the redundancy was unfair. The only way an employer can be sure that an employee will not complain to a tribunal after redundancy is to persuade them to sign away their right to do so.

Without knowing the history of your employment or the set up at your organisation including whether other employees have negotiated increased redundancy rates, it is hard for me to advise you. Your employer should tell you how redundancy is calculated though.

If, as you say, you are benefiting the organisation by covering till August to provide temporary cover, you could make the suggestion that you be paid more compensation due to this reason. Sometimes employers can be quite flexible. Do you have employment after this?

Other areas I would advise you clarify is the reason for your redundnacy, the numbers and categories of employees involved and how you were selected for redundancy.

I hope this has helped. Let me know how you get on in your meeting tomorrow.

Ooops sorry Carol, look like we were both responding to the post at the same time.

I just read your post about your compromise agreement and enhanced package for redundnacy. Sorry, I whizzed through your post earlier.

I did look at your post earlier about the selection pool. If you feel that you have been unfairly selected or whether your redundancy is being handled unfairly, you should raise this during your consultation meeting with your HR Manager.