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Is a redundant employee who has turned down an offer of suitable alternative employment still entitled to paid time off to look for other employment?

If a redundant employee accepts alternative work for a fixed term, what are his or her rights when that fixed term comes to an end?

Is a redundant employee still entitled to reasonable paid time off to look for other employment while undertaking a trial period of alternative employment?

If an alternative but less well-paid position is offered to a redundant employee, is there any obligation on the employer to continue paying the employee at his or her current level?

Where an employee has been given notice of redundancy, if he or she seeks to leave before the end of the notice period to take up a new job will this affect his or her statutory redundancy payment?


Is an employer obliged to wait a certain period of time before re-employing an employee who was dismissed for redundancy?

Once employment has terminated by reason of redundancy, if the economic situation suddenly changes and the employer then needs to employ someone, it is under no obligation to offer the redundant employee his or her job back. The employer is entitled to recruit someone else. Having said that, if the employer does wish to re-employ the redundant employee, it may do so and there is no obligation on it to wait a certain period of time before offering re-employment to that individual.

When assessing whether or not there was a genuine redundancy situation for the purposes of the fairness of the dismissal, an employment tribunal will look at the entire period from the start of redundancy consultation until the employee's employment terminates on the ground of redundancy. If the employer engages someone else in a particular role shortly after making an employee redundant from that role, this may cast doubt on the genuineness of the redundancy should the employee challenge it by bringing an unfair dismissal claim. In these circumstances, the employer would need to demonstrate that the redundancy situation was still subsisting at the time the redundant employee was dismissed and it was only after that date that its economic position changed.

If the employer does wish to re-employ the redundant employee but also wants to ensure that his or her continuity of employment is broken by the intervening redundancy, there should be a clear calendar-week break (starting on a Sunday) between the termination of one period of employment and the commencement of the new period. Any continuity of service that there might otherwise have been will normally be broken, provided that there has been no agreement between the parties to preserve continuity and the new contract makes clear that it is a new period of employment. To err on the side of caution, a minimum two-week break in service would be advisable.

The position is different if the offer of new employment is made before the original employment has ended, ie if the employee is given notice of redundancy but, before the employment ends, the employer offers him or her a new job. In these circumstances, continuity will be preserved if the new job starts no more than four weeks after the redundancy date.

For statutory redundancy payment purposes, continuity of employment is broken where a redundancy payment has been paid to the employee and the employee is then re-engaged under a new contract of employment. This prevents the employee's service counting twice for statutory redundancy payment purposes.

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Is an employer precluded from re-employing an ex-employee whose contract was terminated by reason of redundancy?

Can an employee who is re-employed after having been made redundant retain his or her statutory redundancy pay?

What happens to an employee's continuity of service if he or she is made redundant and then reinstated?

If recruiting to a position from which an employee was recently dismissed for redundancy, must the employer offer the job to the individual who was made redundant?

Where a vacancy arises because an employee leaves, but this occurs after an earlier redundancy exercise, is the employer obliged to offer the vacant position to one of the individuals who was made redundant?

Can an employee with less than the required service to claim unfair dismissal who believes that he or she has been unfairly selected for redundancy bring a tribunal claim?

If an employee in a TUPE situation refuses to transfer, will he or she be entitled to a redundancy payment?

Where a transferee has no need for the employees transferred to it under TUPE, can the selection pool for redundancy include only the transferred employees, or must it also include the transferee's existing workforce?

At which rate of tax is any redundancy payment above £30,000 taxed?

Where an employee tenders his or her resignation prior to the announcement of the closure of the business will he or she be entitled to redundancy compensation?

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