Business advice column

She is head of employment at GLP Solicitors in Bury. Sarah qualified as a barrister four years ago and as a solicitor in June last year. She is also a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.

Questions and answers are selected from the free employment advice clinics run by GLP at its Haymarket Street, Bury, office each Tuesday between 4pm and 5.40pm and at its Prestwich office in Fairfax Road each Thursday at the same times.

Q. I am the managing director of a small business. Due to a downturn in work, I have advised my employees by way of letter of the possibility of redundancy. Although no decision with regard to redundancy has yet to be made, I have recently received a verbal request from one of my employees for time off work so that he can go and look for another job. What is my position in relation to this?

A. Under Section 52 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employee who has been given formal notice of dismissal for redundancy may have a limited amount of time off work in order to look for another job. Furthermore, this must be paid time off.

The right is not a right to take the work off itself, but just a right to request for time off. However, if you unreasonably withhold your consent to this time off, then the employee may be in a position to apply to the Employment Tribunal for compensation. The amount of time off really depends upon what is reasonable in the circumstances.

In order to qualify for the right to request time off, an employee must actually be under notice of dismissal for reason of redundancy. In this particular case, you only seem to have advised them in writing of a possibility of a redundancy situation; not, that the employees in question are to be made redundant. Therefore, it may be premature for this employee to be asking for time off, when no decision with regard to redundancy has in fact been made.

You can write to Sarah Johnson at GLP Solicitors, Maple House, Haymarket Street, Bury.