A question I have often pondered is why all the main political parties support the present method of making redundancy payments, when they also all support Mobility of Labour.

As things stand redundancy payments are based upon the number of years service with a particular employer. This in itself creates a totally unfair situation. Compare 2 simple cases with 2 men who presently work for the same employer, Stan Stay who has been with the same employer for 20 years. Stan has always been worried about leaving his job in case other better paid jobs might not be so secure. His employer is now making him redundant, and he will receive 20 weeks pay.

Mike Mobile has changed employers 3 times in the last 20 years, staying just over 6 years with each employer. He has been with his present employer just 18 months. Because he has been ambitious Mike has even re-located to different parts of the country to take up better jobs, and has received training in each of his jobs.
Their employer who is a major engineering company employing 7000 people locally has now gone into liquidation.

Stan will receive 20 weeks pay as a redundancy payment, but Mike will receive nothing. This is in spite of the fact that they have both made the same National Insurance Contributions over the years; they will both have the same difficulty in finding new jobs in a town where almost everybody either worked for their employer or a supplier to their employer.

Because Stan has not moved house or jobs for 20 years he has paid off his mortgage, and the redundancy money he receives will give him a very comfortable cushion whilst looking for work.

Because Mike has offered mobility of Labour he still has 18 years to go on the mortgage he took out to move to his present job. He is not going to receive a penny in redundancy, and is going to be in severe financial difficulty in a very short period of time.

Is there any political party in the UK brave enough to put forward a new deal for employees whereby redundancy payments are based upon the number of years since last receiving a redundancy payment? This is much fairer than the present system, and it will also mean that people who are worried that their employer is looking shaky will be more prepared to accept another job offered to them immediately, rather than stick with their old employer so as to not miss out on redundancy.

I would be interested to hear other peoples views.