do i have a case for constructive dismissal?

ravravrav

hi, i have been working at my company for 2 years and i am the only person who does my specific job role. in the meantime i sit with another team who work on something unrelated to me.

for the past 6 months or so the company have changed much of my work and made it electronic, so much of what i do has gone. most of my daily tasks have drastically reduced although i still do some important jobs.

during that time i anticipated the drop in work so have had numerous meetings with my team leader and even the hr department regarding my future job - always being told that nothing had been decided yet and that i was too important to lose.

today i was told my job is under threat and chances are high i will lose my job - me being the only one from my area. however at the same time the team i sit with have taken on 4 temporary staff and even though i have helped them out a lot and can do some of their work, nothing was offered to me nor advertised properly via the company intranet.

i have been told i will have one formal meeting, and then one more final meeting where i can put forward my case as to why my job role should stay. and if an internal vacancy arises they will consider putting me there.

i am not a member of the union but i have been told that i could have a case for constructive dismissal - can anyone offer their advice on this please?

maninthestreet

Sounds like they are considering making your position redundant. They are giving you a chance to tell them why you feel your position is needed before they make a decision. This does not sound like constructive dismissal.

ceridwen

I have my doubts that constructive dismissal would be a possibility. It sounds like a redundancy situation I'm afraid. As I understand the law - redundancy occurs not just when a whole job has gone - but when a substantial part of it has gone (and I expect legal bods could argue till Kingdom Come about the definition of "substantial" - is it 20%, 40%, anything over 50%, etc, etc?)

What I AM thinking though is that you dont even seem to have been offered the chance of continuing with what tasks you can do that are still available. Why didnt they give you what tasks they could from those that have been allocated to the temps and leave you with what tasks you still have left - and between these things you would still have enough work to constitute a job. I guess that boils down to Money. I would be interested in your shoes in everything to do with why these temps were taken on - how long for, how many hours per week, how qualified they are and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - does your company normally take on temps at intervals or is this different practice to normal. I wonder what future plans your company has all round for the firm as a whole.

Good luck.

ravravrav

Thanks for your advice;