Redundancy Advice Warrington
Have you or are you being made redundant?
Redundancy can occur if a business as a whole is forced to close, or closing some of its branches. In other situations it may be the company is reducing the size of its workforce.
If you have been made redundant your employer may have asked you to sign a Settlement Agreement. Although based in Warrington town centre we are able to provide redundancy settlement advice throughout the North West.
If you have been for two years or more continuously you are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment. You can calculate your SRP here.
As well as redundancy pay your employer must also pay you your contractual entitlements, eg salary up to the termination date, pay in lieu of holidays and all other benefits, such as commission owed to you. Your employer must also give you time off to find a new job.
Settlement agreements
It is becoming very common for employers to require an employee to sign a Settlement Agreement in exchange for a termination or compensation payment. A termination payment is a payment which is tax free up to £30,000.00 – the remainder after that is taxable as usual. If you have been made redundant and your employer has sent you a settlement agreement to review we can certainly help. We have advised on thousands of settlement agreements. Once we have reviewed the agreement and answered any questions you may have we will sign the adviser’s certificate (which is a requirement of a valid, legally binding settlement agreement) and invoice your employer direct. If you need help and advice call us on 01925 937070 or email dianemassey@dsmlegal.co.uk or complete the enquiry form on the right hand side of the page and we will call you.
How much is legal advice for a settlement agreement
Usually fees are between £500.00 – £750.00 + VAT for the statutory advice, however we will agree our fees with your employer in advance and forward our invoice to them direct.
What is the procedure and how quickly can you deal with a Settlement Agreement?
The process is very straightforward. Please contact us for an initial discussion. If you are ready to proceed we will ask that the settlement agreement is emailed to us so that we can review it. We will then call you at a pre-arranged time to run through the terms. If you prefer you can attend at our office in person, although the advice can be given over the telephone and the settlement agreement finalised by email. We will ask you to sign the settlement agreement when your are happy with the terms and sign the adviser’s certificate. We then send the signed agreement to your employer for them to sign. Once finalised at their end they will return it to us and we will forward it on to you if your employer has not already done so.
Provided that you contact us before 12 noon we can usually complete all the necessary steps the same day.
Suitable alternative employment
Your employer should consider whether there is any suitable alternative employment for you before making you redundant. The new job description should make it clear how the new job differs from the old one. If the new job is accepted then an employee is treated as never having been dismissed for redundancy purposes.
Unfair dismissal and discrimination
If you are selected for redundancy for any of the following reasons you may be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal and/or discrimination;
- whistleblowing
- sexual orientation/race/age/disability/age
- health and safety activities
- part-time or fixed-term employees
- maternity, paternity or parental leave
- maternity leave, birth or pregnancy
- exercising your statutory rights
Generally, you must have two years’ continuous length of service to bring an unfair dismissal claim, but that does not apply in all cases, such as whistleblowing and neither is there a minimum length of service requirement for discrimination claims.
Redundancy advice Warrington solicitors
This list is not exhaustive so if you are in doubt as to your legal position contact us for advice on 01925 937070 or email dianemassey@dsmlegal.co.uk