An ex-colleague of mine (more like one of my many bosses at the time) had something similar happen to him.
He was offered a VP role for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Asia) region of his business unit in lieu of a bonus one year. He accepted and 9 months down the line they were notified of a change of organisation structure which would mean the role he was due to move into was being phased out (it wasn't, but that's how it was put over).
He asked them for a redundancy package and they refused stating he could stay in his current role as long as he wanted, was a valuable asset to the company, blah, blah, blah.
However, he took them to a tribunal and after 6 months he got a settlement package that consisted of 1 months pay for every year he'd worked for them (22 years), plus 3 months pay for every 10 years he'd he'd worked for them. So he ended up with a settlement of close to €350,000 (well he was a senior partner bringing in €5m+ a year in business) for the equivalent of 28 months reundancy, PLUS they agreed to keep him on indefinite gardening leave until he'd found a suitable replacement role.
The best part is he deliberately took 2 years to find a suitable job, which was in fact setting up a company in competition with the one he left, and using his contacts at FD level to bid for business. The only part of the work he had to do was the introduction & sales, and then he'd bring in a project manager to recuit for the project, for which he also took a 'management fee' of 10%.
He's loving it, and gets to live anywhere in the world he wants (although he's chosen Europe for ease of access to his main clients).
Liverpool
