Awesome - well done [grin]

I presume Firebrand Games has been unused even if its been around for a couple of years... An IE7/Live thingy search pulls up some graphics design company [lol]

Jack

Well, look on the positive side, not only did you get a job in the games industry but when the company went under you were searched out to work in a company formed from the ashes. Use that line at a future interview (and on your C.V.) and your chances of getting that job doubles. :-)

Glad you have employment again, luckily I managed to leave a company in middle England before it went under (knowing it would). Stability is an unstable word in this industry but things are getting better.

ukdm

Congrats :)

Steve, welcome to stability of the games industry at the moment... [depressed]


A few snippets of advice (been there, done that, got the...) in case things don't quite work out as expected/promised:

1) Fill out an RP1 form from the Insolvency Service (http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/pdfs/rp1april2003.pdf).

IIRC the administrators should send you an RP1, but in case they don't (or 'proper' administrators/liquidators aren't appointed) see above. A jobcentre should also be able to sort you out with a paper copy of the RP1.

With the RP1, you can claim back any wages owing to you as well as any holiday pay you were entitled to for days you hadn't yet taken.

The amount you get from an RP1 claim is capped, but since you were in a junior role, you'll likely get much of what you were owed.

The money you claim using the RP1 comes from a fund that the Redundancy Payment Service has for companies that go bust without being able to pay their employees (usually ones who don't have enough assets to liquidate to pay all the creditors). The money for that fund comes from everyone's National Insurance contributions - it's stuff like that which NI was designed for.



2) If your former employer (or the administrator) doesn't sort out your P45 pronto, then you're technically still employed, just working for nothing!

When this happens, the employer is in breach of contract - write them a formal **letter** telling them this.

Things like the Redundancy Payment Service and the dole will only pay out for the time you are /really/ unemployed.



3) If your former employer is talking about setting up a new company, and any length of time has elapsed, be wary of signing *any* paperwork with the letters TUPE on. A TUPE agreement is a [usually fine, sometimes sneaky] way of transferring all the employees of one company to another company, and can cancel your rights to claim redundancy, dole, etc in any interim period.



4) "We're saved" phoenix companies rising from the ashes of a newly bust company can feel great - but beware of "out of the frying pan into the fire" situations - sometimes they work; sometimes they're last ditch attempts to salvage an already sunk ship and you'd have been better off (stress wise, hopes wise, work wise, career wise etc) moving on when you had the chance.



5) If there's any downtime between the old company and any 'phoenix' companies or new job, claim any and all the benefits you can (on top of the RP1) - don't feel you're sponging (it amazes me how many newly redundant people I've met do) - you've paid tax and national insurance while you were working for a reason, it's your *right* (very different to the people who really are sponging).


Simon.

Thanks for all the replies; particularly Simon's.

I'm back at work as we speak (Although there's only a handfull of us here, and half the logins aren't working), so there was only really 1 day of downtime. I still haven't seen any P45 or new contract or anything, but apparently that'll all get sorted out today. I hope so anyway...

I was aware the industry is in a bit of a state just now, and I was prepared for things like this happening, so I'm not too surprised or anything. I'm also a bit wary of juping into a "phoenix company" as you put it, for the exact reasons you mentioned.

Still, there's a talk by Real Time Worlds for everyone at 3pm today [wink]

Personally I'd run away from any person running a company that screwed me out of an entire months wages and then can setup a new one immediately and still offer to pay me!

A big fat plus-one to everything Simon has said.