Redundancy settlement

Hi there,
Hope someone out there might have some relevant views on this for me please!

Company has decided to shut down unit of 7 people (years of service ranging from 2 up to 11) - company has offered 5 weeks per year of completed service up to a cap of six months salary.

(Company has also stated that they are looking for an amicable split - hence the amount stated above)

now i understand that the offer is well above statutory but i cannot square off the fact that anyone who has been working in the unit less than 6 years gets a better relative severance than those working more than 6 years (in fact the longest serving member ends up with a real 2.75 week per year served against 5 week per year offering for a 4 year member)

has anyone out there heard of such a capping mechanism ?
does it appear fair and just ?
anyone got any precedents that might be relevant as an argument against accepting this deal?

any thoughts gratefully received

Anything above statutory redundancy is presumably down to negotiation and emloyer discretion.

When we had redundancies, there was a cap, but it affected only a small number of people and by a small percentage so it was not contentious.

The company I work for has a policy whereby the longer you work for them the less number of weeks redundancy per year you get. It starts off at something like 5 for one year and reduces per year of service. Can't remember what the cap is.
1 year of service = 5 weeks redundancy, overall 5 weeks pay
10 years of service = 3.7 weeks redundancy, overall 37 weeks

thanks for the replies - anymore information anyone may have would be useful - still can't get my head around the fact that employer (large well known player with a 'employer of choice' stated HR goal) would want to give a less rewarding severance deal to longer serving employees than those with less years service

The Trade Unions are generally quite good at conducting this kind of negotiation on behalf of their members. They generally dont like capping mechanisms as they percieve them to be inequitable and unfair.

aj

ta for that ajapale - unfortunately i don't work in a unionised environment ! but i'd be agreeing with the unions on this one

icantbelieve, is the settlement policy something that is written into a general contract/company handbook or is it something that has just developed over time? has it been challenged by anyone ? - thanks for your input - much appreciated