Employment Law

GARY600

Hi All

Hopefully someone here has a bit of knowledge on employment law and can
answer a question for me. I work for a company that is starting to feel the
credit crunch kick in and I think there may be some bad news coming for a
few of the employees. My question is if there are redundancies does it go on
how long you ave been with the company, personal skills, attendance record
or non of the above. My boss has another seperate company which he
moved one the employees from to our company two months ago to do a job
which he had no experience of so how does this effect the other empoyees ?
Can this person be kept on at the expence of another longer serving person ?

Valli

The main thing here is what is redundant - the employee or the role? Where unions are involved (and depending on the size of the company) they often negotiate for voluntary redundancies first - in which case employees may be transferred to another role, then go for a last-in first-out position, not least because the size of the redundancy payout that will need to be made.
If you think this might happen why not ask for an informal meeting where the selection process will be explained to you.
If a 'role' is redundant then whoever fills that role should be made redundant (unless that person takes over a volunteer's role) and no-one should then be doing that job. There is also the possibility of 'combining' roles. Say where there were three jobs the bulk of that work will be done by two employees and one made redundant.

GARY600

Can they only lay of people whos jobs have become redundant ?
If I have experience of every job in the company and longer service than
everyone else does this help me ??
If the job I do is still profitable can they make me redundant ?

What would I be entitled to after 10 years service?

Valli

No - they can make jobs redundant - that role no l onger exists and they can make staff redundant. What they shouldn't do is make someone redundant then get someone else to do exactly that job unless it's combining roles. It depends on the set up .
If you have longer service and more experience then yes it should help. What you are entitled to is dependant on the age you started. Very roughly for every complete year of service a weeks pay. You can also be paid 'in lieu of notice' so that you leave earlier. Some companies don't give employees chance to go back in to the workplace for fear that damage might be done - ie data lost etc. as a malicious act.
It depends what selection strategy is to be used. As I said if there's a union they will negotiate - if not, and you think there's a real risk then an informal chat might be the way to go. Not least because you will want a glowing reference...
Regarding redundacy pay you need to check that out for yourself for the governments accurate minimum.
Whether or not the job is profitable doesn't matter. HTH

greenbee

Just to clarify, length of service has to be dealt with very carefully in these situations, as it could be seen as age discrimination. Your age cannot be a factor either in whether you are kept on or in the kind of redundancy deal you get (changing redundancy clauses due to age discrimination legislation has caused a lot of upset in recent years).

Length of service becomes a problem if someone points out that they're being discriminated against because they are too young to have been employed as long as the longer serving employee.

From your boss's point of view, longer serving employees may well cost more to make redundant (although they may also cost more to employ too).

However, if you have experience of all roles in the company, then if your role is made redundant, but they are looking for volunteers, then you will be in a good position to take another role if it becomes vacant.

What often happens in situations like these is a large number of roles are made redundant and fewer new roles are created that combine the responsibilities of some of the old roles. Employees should then be matched against roles so that the most suitable person fills each role - and then those who don't fit into the roles/don't fit as well as others - end up being offered redundancy.

It will really depend on what your boss wants to acheive from the redundancy exercise as to what approach he will take.

ladyrider260

Service doesn't have a lot to do with it. It's fairer to say 'first in, last out' but it's not law. However, the more 'badges' you have, the more scope you have for re-shuffling. Here's an example:
You do job A, but also have experience of jobs B & C. You are made redundant from post A as that post no longer exists, but there are openings in job B. Your employer is then obliged to offer you an alternative post, redundancies should be a last resort.
However, if another colleague (who is younger/has shorter service etc) only has experience in job A & is offered job B over you, you can then question it.

Employers can find lots of loopholes to avoid the discrimination card such as changing job titles/hours/combining roles etc (and the cheek is they can actually interview for the newly named posts & offer you to apply!), it's whether you can find the ammunition to prove they've discriminated against you.

Lots of solicitors do a free consultation, so if you feel you've had a raw deal then go along & have a chat even if you don't take it further. You may be able to arm yourself with something that'll save your job - most employers seem to think their employees are daft!
Good luck.

hex2

GARY600 wrote: »

What would I be entitled to after 10 years service?

There is a statutory redundancy pay reckoner on www.direct.gov.uk
Assuming you are under 40 and earn more than £350 per week then you would get £3.5k, plus ten weeks statutory notice plus any accrued but untaken holiday pay. This is the legal minimum based on the info you have provided.

There are lots of legal scenarios round this, in theory though given that you have a good length of service, wide ranging experience, are expensive to make redundant and make a profit you should be safe. The key thing is when and if it gets to 'consultation' stage is to ask lots of questions, what are the criteria, why are they scoring you like that, why arent they taking your skills and experience into account, etc - it tells them they are dealing with someone who is going to challenge the decision and they will take more care in their selection. Last in first out is potentially discriminatory now and shouldn't be used. Remember though it is a role that is made redundant, not a person. If your role ceases to exist (or is re-structured to become part of other peoples roles) does anyone else do the same or very similar job to do? Make sure they are being consulted with to. Make it clear that you have taken advice.

Hope everything works out for you.