Seeking opinion about contract wording

[suenstar]

Like many places we've been going through redundancy processes lately and for a few staff there was an option to take voluntary redundancy or apply for a new post.

I've been with the organisation for over 10 years, so have built up fairly good redundancy entitlement... however one of the jobs that was being offered was essentially may old job with a few added duties so I thought I'd put my name forward for it.

I was offered the job, so I'm happy about that bit... but there's one line of text on the new contract that has me a little conflicted about accepting the job.

This is the line of text:
"Your previous employment does not count as part of your period of continuous employment."

Now I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid but that just seems that they're trying to get staff to agree to wipe their previous redundancy entitlement so that they can make them redundant a few months later without being entitled to anything.

I'm planning to speak to the HR manager on Monday to ask them to clarify the intention of that line on the contract before I sign it.

But in the meantime, I thought I'd get some opinions from here to see if others think that sounds as bad as I think it does.

 

[suenstar]

Thanks, I'm glad it's not just me being paranoid and reading it weirdly.
It's the first time I've seen it on a contract as well, this is my 4th contract with this organisation as well so I find it extra odd that they'd add it this time.

As far as I can tell, since my current contract ends on the 31st March and this new one begins on the 1st April, my continuous employment should carry on as normal as there's no actual break in my employment.

When I talk to our HR manager tomorrow, if they confirm that it is a statement that is intended to cancel out my current redundancy entitlement, then I'll be telling them that I need to think about the offer over Christmas.
That'll hopefully give me time to talk to ACAS/CAB and any other professionals to see what they think.

 

[suenstar]

Thanks for all the input everyone, it's been really helpful.

Just to update, I sat down and had a little chat with our HR manager today and went over the contract and my concerns about that wording.
They said that it wasn't anything to worry about and that the front sheet of the contract they used was a sort of catch-all template, one that they could give to either an internal/external applicant and that the line would only apply for anyone external that was offered the job.

I said that I wasn't comfortable signing it whilst that line was on the contract due to the potential for it being abused and explained that even if the current HR manager had no intention of it being used how it read on paper, if they left the organisation and another person took over HR, the new person could turn around later down the line and say "well you clearly signed the agreement that contained this statement".
I asked for that line to be taken off the contract so that there's no issues later on and they agreed to do it, so hopefully no further problems appear before the contract officially kicks into action in April.

 

[suenstar]

Brilliant result, are you happy to sign it if they remove it?

Yes, now that I've convinced them to remove that line of text from the contract I'm okay with agreeing to the rest of the contract.
It's essentially 90% of my current role plus a two or three added duties for a minor pay increase.

Great news, just another prime example as why you should always read the contract /terms and conditions.

Indeed, I'm one of those people who insists on reading everything multiple times before I sign an agreement.