How much notice is legally required for redundancy?
The statutory redundancy notice periods in the UK are: * a minimum of one week’s notice if you have been employed between one month and two years * one week’s notice for each year if employed between two and 12 years * 12 weeks’ notice if employed for 12 years or more. However, you should also check your contract of employment as this could have set out longer notice periods or included other arrangements. Many employers have got around this by giving the employee a payment equivalent to the wages for the number of weeks notice they were entitled to as ‘payment in lieu of notice’ and shoving them out the door. This is quite legal. It should be said that many employees would be quite happy with that arrangement, unless you are used to regularly working overtime as you would only get your basic pay.
