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In 2005 I held a position with salary of £35k plus 10% commission. In 2008 I was told that I had to accept a 25% pay cut on both salary and commission which, even though challenged, I am still on. I have now received an e-mail to tell me that this position is being made redundant and being offered a lower contract of £17000 plus commission which is to start in 2 weeks time.An offer of £1395 severance has been made to go with the new contract that they wish me to sign which has been based on the lower salary (less the 25%) I am the only person affected in this change, as my employers asked me to change contracts 5 months ago but I declined. Are they legally allowed to adopt this process?
Optional Information: System of Law: England-and-Wales Already Tried: Contact with the office but they will not move on this
Hello and thank you for your question, which I will be happy to assist you with. Please let me know what specifically are you concerned about?
Whether the terms of the redundancy are correct
Do I ahve any redress
Was the 25% paycut also legal?
have you been told what would happen if you reject their iffer?
offer?
No but suspect it would end in being made wholly redundant
are yo the only one doing this particular job?
This role has been temporarily suspended for the last 4 years and the only other person left on the same salary (working on the same role as myself but in another part of the country) was taken into the office for technical skills but was also offered the same as myself 2 weeks ago and has now left the company.
If your current job is being made redundant then the employer has a duty to try and offer you any suitable alternative employment instead of making you redundant. If you believe that the offer is unsuitable you have the option of rejecting that and opting for redundancy instead. Whether the offer is suitable depends on a number of factors, not least pay and benefits so if they differ greatly from what you are currently on then you can treat it as unsuitable and safely reject it.
In terms of the severance package if you were to be made redundant, that would be based on the current salary you are on. The reduction that occurred 4 years ago would be taken into account. Whether that change was legal or not is a moot point but if you did not agree to it you should have challenged it formally by now, otherwise you would be deemed to have accepted it.
the actual wording from the e-mail states; the Company can no longer sustain the additional renumeration costs burden attached to a defunct role. ..offer you to consider continuing your current role of installation engineer.Offer includes pro-rata redundancy pay for pay difference in the two posts of £1395.80 made up of current basic pay £26,250pa - this is actually NOT the original salary but based on the 25% lower salary . They are stating that the basic pay adjustment from field supervisor to aerial engineer is a negative £8,861 p.a. when it is actually a lot more
your redundancy pay would be based on your current salary and can be calculated here
www.direct.gov.uk/redundancy.dsb
ok, that answers the question as to whether I should stay in the role and I guess that it is best that I do.Many thanks
My pleasure. Unless you need further help, I would be grateful if you could please press Accept before exiting. Many thanks and all the best.
Experience: Specialist in UK Law with expertise in UK Employment Law