Redundancy when sent abroad?

Voluntary Redundancy Figure Withdrawal!?

• I recently received by figures/offer for taking voluntary redundancy. I was happy with this, so I signed the letter confirming to proceed and sent it back. Several days later i was ...show more

• Answer:

  It is impossible to answer this question with any certainty without knowing exactly what the letter said, whats in your employment contract, and where you are in the redundancy process. However, I suspect that this was not an "offer" in the contractual sense - ie it was not intended to lead to a binding agreement at this stage. It is normal when redundancies are anticipated for employers to ask for volunteers. And this may be accompanied by a detailed assessment of what payment an employee would be entitled to, but it may not. And this voluntary payment may or may not be higher than you would be entitled to (by contract or statute) if you held out and were forced into redundancy. So the letter could be seen as part of a negotiation process. IE "would you be prepared to leave if we offered this much?". You said you would, but that would never have been binding on the employer because they may have had too many volunteers or too many from one department. And it certainly won't be binding on you if they want to reduce the figure offered.