Advice Redundancy & Redeployment Redundancy and Early Voluntary Retirement Advice
Friday, 25 June 2010 00:00 | 
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REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS AND EARLY VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT SUMMARY
Arising from several queries Unison has summarised the various options/entitlements for clarity when you are considering your individual circumstances under the current redundancy situation. In the left column are links to the redundancy, redeployment and retirement policies for your information.
REDUNDANCY
This is an Agreed Policy with Unison.
During this current redundancy exercise the full provisions of the policy will be applied and your Unison representative will be most familiar with this and how it needs to be applied in each individual member's circumstance.
Unison has agreed an expeditious Appeals process against having being selected for redundancy, any unfair selection and whether alternative job offers are indeed offered and suitable. We will be able to advise you personally of your options and implications at every stage of the procedure. It is expected that such appeals will take place during September 2010, possibly running over into October 2010, dependent on proposed dismissal dates.
Unison needs to do two things.
- Ensure the policy and your employment rights are maintained at every stage and advise you accordingly.
- Make strenuous efforts to negotiate alternatives to redundancy with the Council. We are presently engaged in this process with both the Chief Executive, Personnel Director and elected members.
REDEPLOYMENT
Unison has agreed with the Council that this policy be applied in its greatest flexibility and effectiveness. There will be a shortened approach to identifying available job vacancies and matching these up with those staff at risk in terms of skills, experience and abilities. The Council assure us that real positive measures will be taken to achieve matching and appointing staff to available vacancies.
Please familiarise yourself with this policy as your engagement in this will be essential throughout.
REDUNDANCY PAY AND RETIREMENT PAY
The Council is seeking expressions of interest from all Council staff to volunteer to retire or be made voluntarily redundant, in order to free up further potential vacancies which staff at risk could be appointed to. This exercise will also apply to those staff identified as at risk of actually being made redundant. So if you are at risk and wish to volunteer for redundancy/early retirement please consider this policy to determine your entitlements.
Some key issues answered for clarity are :
WHATEVER AGE YOU ARE, whether you are in the Local Government Pension Scheme or not, you are entitled to a redundancy payment so long as you have two years continuous local government service, including previous continuous service with another Local Authority. The Council will be paying a normal week's contractual wages (including contractual payments such as out of hours payments, contractual overtime and shift payments) when determining the value of a week's pay. REFER to the redundancy Ready Reckoner and match your age with length of full completed years service to determine the number of weeks' pay you will receive as a redundancy payment.
IF YOU ARE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME you have the right to substitute your redundancy payment for TWO additional added pension years - you will need to carefully consider this option ie. decide do you want the upfront redundancy payment or add two more years onto your pension entitlement so that your future pension will benefit.
IF YOU ARE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME there are differing rules dependent on your age when retiring and how long you have been in the scheme. Unison will discuss your individual circumstances and which rule/entitlement applies to yourself. If you are identified as at risk, you will receive estimates from the Council setting out your redundancy pay entitlement and (if you are in the LGPS) your pension entitlements subject to the age requirements.
MATERNITY
If you are or expect to be pregnant in any period up to 30 September 2010, your maternity rights and payment entitlements will be complicated by the fact of being at risk of redundancy and whether you reach the 15th week before the expected date of confinement, whether you want to accept redundancy or seek to return to work after the birth and the implications of redeployment and/or right to a redundancy payment. Given it's complex Unison will need to advise each individual woman dependent on their circumstances.
These are the most recent redeployment policies:
