Employment Law
Employment Lawyers Can Answer Your Employment Law Questions
Hello, my name is Ben and it is my pleasure to assist you with your question today. Does her contract allow you to pay her in lieu of notice?
yes it does.
Once you have gone through the redundancy procedure and confirmed that she is to be made redundant, at the last meeting where you confirm her dismissal you will give her a letter which states her employment is being terminated for reasons of redundancy and which outlines what she is entitled to. In that letter you would need to mention that her employment will be terminating with immediate effect and that she would not be required to work her notice period as per the relevant term of her contract. Instead she will be paid in lieu of notice and will receive this payment together with her redundancy payment.
In terms of taking on other employees in the future, the only relevant consideration is how long does she have to bring in a claim in the employment tribunal to challenge the redundancy. This time limit is 3 months from the date of termination so if you wish to take someone new on, allow at least 3 - 3.5 months from the date of termination to employ them, because by then she would be out of time to claim unfair dismissal.
had this answered your query?
Sorry I lost my connection. What steps do I need to undertake before I give her the letter? How many meetings etc? as soon as I tell her I am thinking of making her redundant she will refuse to do any more work and if she does she will do it wrong on purpose. We have had so many problems with her the last 3 yrs, refusing to cover my holidays when contract states she does and she agreed to it verbally before signing contract, mobile phone constantly to her ear, doing nothing or as little as possible if I am not in the shop etc.
you will need to follow a fair redundancy procedure, you have t consult with her, advise her she is at risk if redundancy, try to find her suitable alternative employment if it is available, etc. I would say a couple of meetings would suffice. If she refuses to do her work as a reuslt then that would make her guilty of insubordination, which is a misconduct matter and can potentially lead to a disciplinary
OK Just one last question. How long a period should I leave between the initial meetings?
it does not need to be too long, several days, week at most would be suffcient
Is there anything else I can clarify for you?
I would be grateful if you could please take a second to leave a positive rating - your question will not close and I can continue providing further advice if necessary. Thank you