question on Legal Procedure

pilgrim172

Afternoon All,

Mine, like many other companies is going through the redundany process.

I', potentially in the firing line and have been notified by a letter that a percentage of staff will be made redundant. This was approximately a month and a half ago.

During this time there have been four meetings with HR, the employee representatives and the Trade Union. The minimum consultation period is 30 days in this case and it has taken longer which is fine.

I have just found out today that the group are still finalising the selection criteria for redundancies although some voluntary redundancies have already been accepted. I was of the impression that at the start of the consultation period, the representatives should have been armed with all the ammunition for numbers, selection criteria etc... In this case they clearly haven't, does this mean that the consultation period can't really have officially started? In addition there have been no individual consultations with any personnel to discuss through options, appraisals, possible reployment etc..

I'm just a little concerned that things aren't being done correctly and they are just going to issue a list of people very soon (which I think is the intention!)

Any feedback would be much appreciated as it's all a bit of a grey area!

Pilgrim

gtrevor

The consultation process is there to agree selection criteria etc. the subjects covered during a consultation process are:

- the reasons for the proposals;
- the numbers and descriptions of employees it is proposed to dismiss as redundant;
- the total number of employees of any such description employed by the employer at the establishment in question;
- the proposed method of selecting the employees who may be dismissed;
- the proposed method of carrying out the dismissals, taking account of any agreed procedure, including the period over which the dismissals are to take effect;
- the proposed method of calculating any redundancy payments, other than those required by statute, that the employer proposes to make.

When the above points have been agreed, or at least got to a point where no further consultation will result in an agreement, the consultation can end.

Employers have to consult on a 1-2-1 basis with their employees, in addition to collective consultation with reps, and from the sound of it they have done this as you have had 4 meetings with HR etc.

They cannot just issue a list of people to be made redundant, you will be called into a meeting, and dismissed for reasons of redundancy. As with any dismissal, you have the right to challenge the rationale for this dismissal in the meeting, and if you still disagree with their reason for choosing you, you can make a formal appeal to be held by a more senior manager.

Hope that helps!

loveangel

it's an interesting scenario, a friend of mine who works for the civil service is suffering the same as you; apparently HR have failed to follow procedure and refused to a meeting with the complainant in breach of their own procedures and then failed to appoint an independent person to carry out a review of the evidence before making their decision. One officer acting director of HR claimed to have appointed herself as the independent person and carried out the review herself despite having a compliant against her from the respondent. To add insult to injury the HR person leaked the 'confidential' complaint against her to the original complainant apologising that she could not 'crack on' with the case.
It really does defy belief what goes on in the Civil Service HR and of course despite the well publicised Civil Service Code - HR staff are excluded from that so they can effectively mislead, lie, conceal data, falsify data - you name it they are immune and if you complain internally they will select one of their chums to investigate.
The Trade Union full time elected officials have been bought off with generous promotions and have not done a civil service job in almost 10 years, so all staff unhappy with their treatment have to go straight to the employment tribunal - leading to huge costs for the employer and untimately the taxpayer.
One lucky employee got close to £50,000 for bullying and harassment which HR refused to properly investigate another got almost £10,000 for stress having been also given the runaround by these rogue HR officials.

So in summary you are not that badly done by but bang in an ET claim if you think they have wronged you and hire a no win no fee solicitor to sting them for every penny.