36. Members of staff who are made redundant and have at least two years continuous service are legally entitled to a redundancy payment. The payment is calculated on the basis of age and length of service (which has to be counted backwards from the date of dismissal) as follows:

for each complete year of employment during which the member of staff was aged 41 or over, 1.5 weeks pay;
for each complete year when the employee was at least 22 but less than 41 years old, 1 weeks pay;
for each complete year when the employee was aged 18 or over but less than 22, half a weeks pay.

37. A ready reckoner showing the total number of weeks an employee is entitled to, by age and length of service is attached as Appendix 1 to this procedure.

38. The maximum service that can be taken into account is 20 years, and there is a limit set on the amount of a weeks pay which can be used in the calculation. This amount is reviewed annually; it is currently 240 (at 1 February 2001). Redundancy payments are tax-free up to 30,000.

Non-statutory payments

39. The School will not negotiate redundancy payments either individually or collectively in excess of statutory entitlements. However, in certain circumstances (see paragraphs 40-44 below), additional, non-statutory payments may be made.

Payments in lieu of notice and ex-gratia payments

40. Staff facing redundancy may prefer to devote their notice period to seeking alternative employment (but see paragraphs 60-64 below). Motivation may be low in the period leading up to termination of employment, and so it may sometimes be unproductive for the School to insist that notice periods are worked. In such circumstances it may be possible to offer staff the option of being paid in lieu of notice.

41. Alternatively, operational constraints may make it impossible to release employees who would wish to leave immediately, and hence, ways of maintaining motivation must be found. Therefore where an employee has been required to work out a period of notice, an ex-gratia payment equivalent to payment in lieu of that notice will be incorporated into the final redundancy package. Such payments are irrespective of the age or length of service of the employee, and are also tax-free up to 30,000.

Enhanced redundancy payments

42. Employees with more than five years service will be offered a redundancy payment that reflects their service to the School. This payment will be based on the statutory redundancy scheme, but the upper limit to the definition of a weeks pay will not be applied. Instead, payments will be calculated on the basis of the employees actual weeks pay. In addition, the number of weeks pay to which they are entitled will be doubled.

43. When staff with between two and five years service are to be made redundant, the statutory redundancy scheme will apply, but the calculation of redundancy payments will be based on the employees actual weekly pay, which ever is the greater.

44. Employees with less than two years and more than six months service will also receive a redundancy payment (though they are not legally entitled to one). Payments will be based on the statutory scheme, with service of less than a year being rounded up to one year.

Withdrawal of ex-gratia and non-statutory redundancy payments

45. The School reserves the right to withdraw the offer of any of the following:

payment in lieu of notice;
ex-gratia payment;
enhanced redundancy payment;
purchase of additional years pensionable service.

In such circmstances the appropriate statutory payments will be made instead.

Early retirement

46. Potentially redundant employees may wish to convert part or all of their redundancy payment into funds to buy additional years of pensionable service, and this possibility will be discussed with them during the consultation period with employees over 55 who have more than five years service.

47. Pension enhancement cannot be guaranteed, but will be sympathetically considered in appropriate cases. All offers of pension enhancement are subject to the approval of the Head of Personnel.

Conduct and performance during notice periods

48. All non-statutory payments are subject to continued satisfactory performance whilst members of staff at risk of, or under notice of redundancy remain employed by the School. Employees are also expected to conduct themselves in a reasonable manner at meetings held in connection with the consultation period.

AJ/ID - 2 November 2001