Q: I’m a self-employed builder employing family members but had to issue a notice of lay-off in December. Do I have to pay redundancy?
Jan 07 2009
Answered by: Peter Done Ask a question
This question is slightly more complicated than you might think. You referred to putting people on lay-off, not making them redundant, and these are two very different issues.
Lay-off is not redundancy. If you have a member of staff who is laid-off for four or more consecutive weeks, or for six weeks in a 13-week period, then they can give you notice of their intention to claim a redundancy payment. If you do not, or cannot, serve a counter notice giving them a guarantee of work in accordance with the regulations then they can resign and claim a redundancy payment calculated on their length of service.
Although you are self-employed, the people working for you are not and as long as they are an employee of yours then they have certain rights in a lay-off situation in respect of claiming a redundancy situation. This is not affected by the fact that they are family members but you only have to make a redundancy payment to someone on lay-off if they have given you notice of their intention to claim that payment in accordance with the regulations and they subsequently resign. If the employee does not resign then their employment continues under lay-off until they actually resign or you give them work again. They are not entitled to a redundancy payment, even if they have given you notice of their intention to claim this, until such time as they formally resign from the company.
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