I'm being made redundant, and my employer has offered me a new job that I'm not sure I want. Must I take it?

It can be difficult to work out your best course of action if your employer offers you another job. It may mean that you are not legally redundant if you turn the job down.

Your employer (or an associated employer, or a new employer taking over the business) must offer you a new job before your current contract expires, and it must start within four weeks.

The job must be suitable for you, and you can turn down an alternative offer that is clearly unsuitable.

If you think the job may be unsuitable but are still willing to give it a go, you can agree to try it out for a four-week trial period. (This period can be extended if you are being retrained, but arranging an extension must be done in writing).

If at the end of the trial period you are still in the new job, then you lose any rights to a redundancy payment. In law you have accepted the new job.

If you reject the new job before the end of the trial period, because it turns out to be unsuitable as an alternative, or for good personal reasons, your redundancy will be considered to have started the day your old job ended.

However if you and your employer disagree about whether the alternative job is suitable you may need to make a claim in an Employment Tribunal and show them why the job was unsuitable. If that Tribunal finds that you have refused a suitable offer of alternative employment you lose your right to a redundancy payment.

So, if you are thinking of rejecting an alternative job offer, take advice, and do so in good time.