# OK to rehire an employee you've just made redundant to a new role?



## stuartmc (17 Jul 2009)

My role has been made redundant and the consultancy period is over. The termination date is 31st July. There is an ex-gratia payment, provided I sign the discharge agreement.

However, I'm being put forward for a new role witin the company at the same time. The formal offer letter will not be ready before the 31st July.

Is there a barrier for employers to rehire people they make redundant? I'm told this would be a problem in the UK, which is why I'm concerned.

Also, I'm told that the ex-gratia payment will not be available to me as they will have an offer letter for the new role for me in August, even though the redundancy process will continue normally. This was disappointing news.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## Brendan Burgess (17 Jul 2009)

There is no real barrier for your employer.  They are foolish to do it though.

They should just transfer you to the new job. 

As proposed, you will be paid statutory redundancy and the Government will pay 60% of this. Theoretically, they could claim that the redundancy was not genuine and refuse to pay the money. 

Your clock will be reset to zero for redundancy purposes, so if you are made redundant again in 18 months' time, you will get no further statutory redundancy. 

I think that the courts would regard your employment as continuous if they tried to fire you within 12 months. 

If you are getting a lump sum from your pension scheme, you are better off with continuous service of many years when calculating the SCSB. But that might be too remote a consideration at this stage.

Brendan


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## stuartmc (17 Jul 2009)

Thanks Brendan.


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