Tweet
Hoping someone could help with a little query for my husband.
He's been at the same employer since Q3 2015 till date, and over the last month or so the (family owned) company has been letting employees go, one by one. Reasons given to my husband's colleagues were "we're not making enough money, and have to let people go". The company recently moved their offices into the City in a really expensive area, and everyone knew about the losses they were making due to other factors.
Early this week, the company owners started calling people in one at a time, until they go to the end of the day and called my husband in. They told him the bad news, and that his contract has been 'terminated'. He asked if he was getting fired? they said no not at all, and not to take it personally; that the company needed to focus on other areas of the business that would generate more profit. Unfortunately the entire team is getting dissolved, where some tasks will be handed over to those remaining in the company to do as 'side jobs'.
Now, from my experience of being a City worker, this situation would be labelled as 'Redundancy' - where he would be entitled to a minimum of 1 weeks' pay for each full year he was employed (and all the others members of that were affected). When my husband spoke to them about this, they said "No, this wouldn't be redundancy, your contact is just being terminated". My husband's immediate reaction was "well, what's the reason?" - response: "we're not making a profit from the work the work being done by this team, to be able to keep you" - Even though there's proof that profits have increased!
They've given him 1 months' notice (which you wouldn't do if he was 'dismissed/fired'), and can't seem to give a proper reason as to why this 'termination' has happened, nor why this would not be categorised as 'redundancy'.
I'd like to understand (from a legal perspective) what actions can be taken here, and whether of not this is in fact redundancy. I feel like they're trying to hide away from paying their employees redundancy and instead just keep saying 'sorry, contact is now terminated, nothing personal, we just can't afford to keep you'!!.
Any help/answers would be highly appreciated.
He's been at the same employer since Q3 2015 till date, and over the last month or so the (family owned) company has been letting employees go, one by one. Reasons given to my husband's colleagues were "we're not making enough money, and have to let people go". The company recently moved their offices into the City in a really expensive area, and everyone knew about the losses they were making due to other factors.
Early this week, the company owners started calling people in one at a time, until they go to the end of the day and called my husband in. They told him the bad news, and that his contract has been 'terminated'. He asked if he was getting fired? they said no not at all, and not to take it personally; that the company needed to focus on other areas of the business that would generate more profit. Unfortunately the entire team is getting dissolved, where some tasks will be handed over to those remaining in the company to do as 'side jobs'.
Now, from my experience of being a City worker, this situation would be labelled as 'Redundancy' - where he would be entitled to a minimum of 1 weeks' pay for each full year he was employed (and all the others members of that were affected). When my husband spoke to them about this, they said "No, this wouldn't be redundancy, your contact is just being terminated". My husband's immediate reaction was "well, what's the reason?" - response: "we're not making a profit from the work the work being done by this team, to be able to keep you" - Even though there's proof that profits have increased!
They've given him 1 months' notice (which you wouldn't do if he was 'dismissed/fired'), and can't seem to give a proper reason as to why this 'termination' has happened, nor why this would not be categorised as 'redundancy'.
I'd like to understand (from a legal perspective) what actions can be taken here, and whether of not this is in fact redundancy. I feel like they're trying to hide away from paying their employees redundancy and instead just keep saying 'sorry, contact is now terminated, nothing personal, we just can't afford to keep you'!!.
Any help/answers would be highly appreciated.
