have a interesting situation with a charity that is closing, that has a decent cash balance in the bank
they are making a number of staff redundant and are proposing paying out nearly double the statutory rates that staff are entitled to
obviously any cash remaining goes to another charity, but it looks that there is an ethical mismatch between wanting another good cause some funds and paying out over the odds to the outgoing staff
what would you advise in this situation?
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Replies (12)
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And how are you connected to this charity ?
Auditor ? Independent Examiner ? Trustee ? Lucky Employee ? Donor ? Interested Observer ?
Or what ?
I'd advise them to read CC7 guidance on ex-gratia payments by charities or these and ask them to consider taking, and recording, legal advice
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/return-a-gift-how-charities-can-make-moral-e...
Bottom line is I don't think a charity has the same options to be generous to its staff as a commercial trader might have.
They can do it, they just have to be able to show how it is in the interests of the charity (or rather its public benefit)
As a charity trustee myself, I agree.
With the best will in the world, I would not be advising my children to go into this sector if they were at all concerned about how much they may earn in exchange for the effort/stress.
Shock news: charity acts charitably towards its employees!
Statutory redundancy rates don't really set a high bar to exceed.
Of all the nonsense that goes on in the name of charity, this seems to me to be a strange one to criticise. e.g. I often see news items of people realising life goals by going on expeditions to exotic locations in the name of charity. In my view, if they really wanted to help a charity, they would stay at home and donate the enormous cost of their venture instead.
P.S. Note for AWebs spellchecker: I'm old-school English and use "ise" not "ize".
Shock news: charity acts charitably towards its employees!
The question is whether that is one of the charity's objects.
Nobody's criticising it, just pointing out it may be illegal.
Regarding your PS, the spellcheck isn't AWeb's, it's your browser's. Set the language in your browser to UK English and it'll stop telling you to change ise to ize.
P.S. Note for AWebs spellchecker: I'm old-school English and use "ise" not "ize".
It's actually your browser that you need to resolve this with.
I think you'll find that the spellcheck is in your browser and not in aweb.
(Just in case you didn't get it before my cross-posting with others)
Many employers will have redundancy agreements in place which exceed the statutory minimums.
Some will be to meet collective or other agreements.
The trustees need to ensure that they acting appropriately whilst meeting their obligation to their former employees who are now without a job.
Or is the concern more that something fishy is going on?
