Offers of alternative employment

If your employer is making you redundant, where possible they should attempt to offer you suitable alternative employment within their organisation (or within associated companies). Whether it's suitable depends on the situation and how close the work is to your current job, however the following is taken into account:

• the terms of the job being offered
• your skills, abilities and circumstances in relation to the job
• the pay (including benefits), status, hours and location of the job

If work picks up before your redundancy notice ends, your employer might offer you your own job back as an 'alternative'.

Any offer for an alternative job from your employer should be made before your old job ends. You should be given enough information about what it involves so you know how different it is from your old job.

If your employer has suitable alternative employment within their company but does not offer it to you, your redundancy could be seen as an automatic unfair dismissal. Your employer should let you know about available job vacancies within their company.

• Unfair dismissal

Trial periods

If your employer offers you alternative employment you have the right to a four-week trial period in a new job. This helps you decide if you want to accept the offer and your employer assess your suitability for the job. If you need training for the new job, the four-week period can be extended by written agreement.

If you decide the new job isn't suitable, you can give notice during the trial period without affecting your right to a statutory redundancy payment or your normal employment rights. If you haven't given notice by the end of the trial period your right to statutory redundancy pay ends.

If you refuse an offer

If your employer offers you a suitable alternative job and you unreasonably refuse it, you may lose your right to statutory redundancy pay. If there is a dispute as to whether a job is suitable (or whether your refusal is unreasonable), an Employment Tribunal can decide whether you are due a redundancy payment.

• Employment Tribunals: an introduction

Time off for job hunting

If you have been continuously employed for two years by the date your notice expires, you are allowed a reasonable amount of time off during your notice period to:

• look for another job
• arrange training to help you find another job

How long you can take will depend on your circumstances. If you attend an interview or two and do not take excessive amounts of travelling time, then this is likely to be reasonable.

Whatever the amount of time off you take, your employer only has to pay you up to two-fifths of a week's pay for it. For example, if you work five days a week and you take four days off in total during the whole notice period, your employer only has to pay you for the first two days.

Starting a new job before your notice has expired

If you are offered a job at a new firm, to start before your notice expires, then try and negotiate with your employer for early release without losing your redundancy pay. Employers are often happy to make such arrangements.

If your employer says they can't let you go early (perhaps because there is work that needs finishing) you can give your employer what is called 'a written counter notice' stating when you would like to finish. Your employer should write back to you and say whether or not you can leave early.

If you leave early without your employer's permission you run the risk of losing some or all of your redundancy pay. Normally this only becomes an issue if your employer has given you a longer redundancy notice period than the statutory minimum. Disputes about whether redundancy pay is due in such circumstances can be taken to an Employment Tribunal.

You should take advice from your union, Citizens Advice Bureau or Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) about the specific rules on 'counter notice'.