Redundancy due to department closure: no fixed finish date!

[Dilalio]

My partner works for a large international. Her whole department is being made redundant due to outsourcing overseas.
She has been there part-time for seven years.
She was first informed of the decision back in June. Since that time she has been tasked with additional duties involving the handover and training of outsourced staff.
An incentive package has been put in place for those willing to stay to the handover date.
She is becoming very frustrated that she has not yet been provided with a definite end of employment date, despite numerous requests to management for such.
Obviously, she wants to be able to start looking and applying for a new job but is hampered as she will not be able to give the recruitment agencies a start date.

It doesn't seem very professional of her current employers to be acting in this way and it would appear that they are solely focused on the incoming changes rather than the outgoing!

Can anyone help with information regarding where she stands legally, so that she can put some pressure on her employers to step up to the plate and announce a date for her and her colleagues?

Many thanks,
D

[stevemLS]

Re: Redundancy due to department closure: no fixed finish date!

Presumably the incentive package has some dates linked to it?

I don't think there is anything the law can do to force her employers to announce an end date. There is nothing to stop her looking for a job now but the uncertainty does not assist.

That, however, is part of the reason why her employer is willing to incentivise her to stay for now.

[Dilalio]

Re: Redundancy due to department closure: no fixed finish date!

Thanks for the response.

I think actually just naming a month would be helpful! Initially, it was Sept, then Nov, now they're hinting at Feb or even April!

I suppose that they only have to give her 7 weeks notice, under law: 1 week for every year she has been with them!?

[stevemLS]

Re: Redundancy due to department closure: no fixed finish date!

Yes, you are right on the notice period.

Has she had to sign up to some sort of agreement to receive the retention incentive? How much is it?