Extended redundancy/consultation period...

My father was served notice of redundancy back in June 08. He was under a consultancy period for 90 days. However, come September 08, the consultation period/effective date of termination, was extended for another 90 days. Come December 08, he was given another 90 days extension with an effective date of termination of March 31st. He has now been offered a 6 month extension/contract rather than full-time employment or redundancy.

Questions:

1). The problem is that he has been under the threat of redundancy for about 9 months and does not want to continue in this way. But (from what I gather) if he refuses to accept this new contract, he will not be entitled to any redundancy payments. Is this correct?

2a). Can a company continue to effectively say "well, we're still not sure if the position is to be made redundant, so let's keep extending the consultancy period so we can get rid of him when the right time comes"?

2b). Surely this isn't right? Isn't this abuse of power and/or the law/regulations?

3). Is there a maximum time that one can be on a consultation period? It must end at some point, either cancelled or followed-through with!

I would really appreciate some insight to this - or even a link to some info. I have looked high and low for answers to no avail.

Hi Noemis

If your father is not prepared to accept a fixed term contract as an alternative to redundancy, he should be entitled to a redundancy payment. It is only if the employer can argue that they are offering him a suitable alternative which he was unreasonably refusing that he would waive any redundancy pay. A suitable alternative is a position on similar terms and conditions - so I can't see that a fixed term contract would be appropriate.

To be honest, there is no clear guidance on extending consultation periods in this way. On the face of it there is nothing to stop them doing this. I suppose there could come a point where an employee could resign and claim constructive dismissal on the grounds that the employer has breached the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, by stringing the employee along. This is risky though, as there is never any guarantee of success when bringing such a claim.

I think you father should ask what he would be entitled to if he decided not to accept the FTC as an alternative to redundancy - try to pin them down on the redundancy payment. Conversely, if he decides to take the FTC, he would still be eligible for a redundancy payment when it expires, based on his continuous service.

Regards

Pete