Members under notice
If you have been given a formal redundancy notice with a personal dismissal date and you find another job and want to leave before the dismissal date, you should do the following:
- Write a letter and give it to your manager (remember to keep a copy for yourself).
- Make sure that you give as much notice as you can.
- If your employer gives you more notice than you are entitled to, you must give your notice within the period you are entitled to in law.
- The letter should be dated and should contain your name and address.
- The letter should be headed 'Redundancy Counter Notice'.
- The letter should say "Redundancy Counter Notice. You have given me a redundancy dismissal date of _______ (insert date). I have found another job and I would like my contract to end on ________ (insert proposed leaving date). Please confirm that you accept this as my date of dismissal".
We would expect the manager to agree this and allow staff to leave before the dismissal date and their redundancy payment will be unaffected.
If you are refused an early leaving date and are served with a counter notice from the company you will have a difficult choice to make and should contact Usdaw for more advice.
You should do all you can through the procedures to try and persuade the company to release you. If you cannot then you should try and persuade your new employer to wait for your previous contract to end.
If you have no choice but to leave early to take up your new job despite the company's refusal to release you, you can apply to the employment tribunal to consider your claim if your redundancy payments are withheld and you must lodge a grievance about it. Contact Usdaw for help with a tribunal claim and be careful of the time limits.
Usdaw may have agreed early release provisions in the consultation process - check with your rep.
Members not on notice
If you have not been given formal personal notice of redundancy dismissal and a specific leaving date, you must be very careful. Even though you are at risk of redundancy, if you leave early to go to another job you will not be considered as dismissed and you will lose your redundancy entitlement, if you just resign.
If you want to leave because you have found another job, contact your manager and ask them to dismiss you by reason of redundancy on the date you want to leave and issue you with a dismissal notice to that effect.
If the company refuses to co-operate then you will be forced to make a very hard choice between the new job and the redundancy package.
We hope you will not find yourself in this position, but if you do please contact Usdaw for further advice.