Redundancy Query

[andrew1707]

A friend of mine has been told that they are at risk of redundancy by her employer. She is part of a team working out of the same office down south.
The company wants to centralise it's operations in their existing offices in the north.
Can they make these people redundant. The jobs will still exist, it's just that the company has decided to move the jobs to elsewhere. Do they need to be offered re-location?

Any info would be welcome.

Many thanks

Andrew

[Dogsbody2]

Can the company make the staff redundant? - yes.

Do they need to be offered relocation? - that is impossible to say. The consultation should at least discuss this option. You are presumably talking distances that are impossible to travel daily. For some without ties like house and children, they may wish to consider it.

[Prudie]

Agree ^. They may offer the option of posts in the north to some but would almost certainly not pay re-location expenses. Changing location is an acceptable reason for companies to make redundancies.

[wolf63]

You have friends?

[atalanta]

I worked for a company which did this, but it was moving from midlands to south. Obviously houses, ( etc) were going to be much dearer. They offered relocation expenses ( quite generous, actually) but told those who refused to move that they were making themselves redundant. Of course a lot of families just couldn't move ( children/schools, aged parents, spouses' jobs, etc) so had to take the company's terms. However, the company did do one generous thing - for one month, the last month people were employed, they increased all salaries by 10 percent, so that people could quote a higher salary to a next employer.

[Peter Pedant]

no URL yet

well what about this

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3891

depends a lot on what the contract says

basically the courts recognise that a firm has to recorganise and be able to reorganise and so lays down rules rather than bans reorganisation and makes sure the rules are followed

short answer_ qualified yes

[andrew1707]

Thanks PP. I will pass this on to my friend.

A