Colleagues,A new link has been added on the right of this page that allows you to demand that your MP supports Lindsay Hoyle's (pictured on the right of this picture with Tony Woodley) Private Member's Bill which will seek to increase the current level of redundancy pay.
The maximum statutory payment has always been scandalously low ever since the Tories broke the link with earnings in the 1980's.
I have cut and pasted below the text from the web-site of Unions Together which is the campaigning arm of those unions affiliated to the Labour Party.
On Friday March 13th, Lindsay Hoyle MP will be putting forward a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Commons that would uprate the current level of statutory redundancy pay – the minimum that workers can expect to be paid if they are laid off. When it was first introduced, this was more than double the average weekly wage. But because it has not been increased with inflation, it is now worth only half of average pay. This is an important issue for working people, particularly in these turbulent economic times.
Because of the rules on Private Member’s Bills, we need enough MPs to turn up to support the Bill, or any MP who opposes it can just “talk out” the Bill, preventing it even getting to a vote. It is crucial that we ensure there are enough Labour MPs supporting the Bill in the House of Commons on March 13th so it can move forward. That’s where you can help – by writing to your MP and asking them to be in the House of Commons for the debate.
I know well from personal experience that MPs can take an age to reply to requests like this so, in the meantime, I'd welcome any comments on the rate you'd want to see the statutory maximum set at and/or the methods to link the payments to, for example, earnings etc.
Cheers
Ian
7 comments:
I absolutely support this.
Every redundancy is a tragedy but an appropriate level of redundacy pay can help bridge the unemployement gap.
In the NHS our redundancy terms are well above the minimum and the main effect of this is that employers try that much harder to keep employees in work.
The current derisory level of stat redundancy pay means employers often pay lip service to their duty to avoid redundancy
Hi Jenny,
Thank you very much for the feedback.
I am pleased to hear that the NHS still has enhanced redundancy terms as you'd expect that in some circumstances Trust Boards would have sought an opportunity to reduce.
Thanks for your support for the Bill - fingers crossed!
Cheers
Ian
Ian,
Until I saw this item I had never understood their to be a statutory maximum that employers could use regardless of what your actual pay is and that it discriminates on the basis of age.
I googled statutory redundancy pay and got this link http://www.berr.gov.uk/cgi-bin/er_feb07_reconner.pl
Looking through the information in this ready reckoner I found out that the payment is curently just £350 per full year of employment and that it only starts at 17 and finishes at age 61 regardless and that the maximum number of years you can claim for is 20. So the most you will ever get is is you are 61 (the cut off date) and you have worked for 20 years (also the cut off date) and the meagre sum is just £10,500 - just over £200 a week!
It just goes to show ho little I knew and why the Bill is particularly important at the moment as many long serving workers get thrown on the scrap heap.
Worse still if the banks then won't work flexibly with those becoming redundant it isnt a surpise that their are so many repossessions.
Can I enourage all those that visit this web site to get in touch with their MP.
Thank you.
Jenni
Hi Jenni,
The Tories split the index link between the growth in wages and the yearly increase in the statutory redundancy minimum. Sadly New Labour did not reconnect the two and so we are left with a Ministerial decision about this every two years or so much like the Minimum Wage.
Sadly the government have listened to closely to bodies like the CBI so as a result you can loyally work decades for your employer only to find you lose your job through bo fault on your part and you are left with a payment that is less than one year's pay.
You are right to be angry about this which is what the impetus is behind the private members bill.
Please do get in touch with your MP and ask others at your workplace/branch to do the same.
Thanks Jen.
Ian
My MP is a Tory (Peter Luff - Mid-Worcestershire).
Do you think there is any point getting in touch?
He isn't particularly right wing on issues but I don't see the point as he'l just write back (as he has done in the past) with some Tory crap about employer flexibility and government red tape.
Apart from the nuisance factor and cost of a stamp it'll be useless.
Hi,
I wouldn't be too surprised at a Tory supporting the Bill not least beacuse s/he might seeit as way of highloghting the severity of the economic downturn and the need to support unemployed workers.
There is also this alarming, growing phenomemon of the Tories out-Labouring New Labour. They regularly appear to hold an old Labour position on economic and social issues.
Give it a go and let me know what happens.
Cheers
Ian
Hello Ian,
Although I live outside the UK I must support this campaign.
I am not sure what I can do though as of course I have not an MP.
Please send an advice note.
Yours in God
Peter
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