Can I be made redundant if my job still exists?

FairyElephant_2

Hi,

I've been 'summoned' to a mtg at work on Thurs - in fact just got the letter when I got home today - Tuesday - very angry actually as the letter says that the HR person and the manager who are meeting with me are travelling from the head office in another town (quite some distance) to see me - but I don't actually work on Thursdays, and they have not consulted me to see if I am able/willing to change my day off! However, that is beside the point I guess...

We all know that there are areas of the compnay which are not doing well, and that the financial targets which were set 18 months ago (and were unreachable then as far as we 'ordinary employees' were concerned, but no-one listens to us!) are definitely unrealistic. We were given a 'business update' a few weeks ago which basically said there would be 'unpleasant decisions' to be made in the company's future and there would be job losses....

HOWEVER the contracts with which I deal are still making money, and we are contracted for another 3.5 years! Someone will still need to carry out my job role in order to fulfill these contracts. I don't even work from the local office (which the rumours say may be closed) as I work in a site office on one of my contracts, which is provided by the client!

There's no-one else in my area of the country who does my job, although peoplein the company do similar jobs for other contracts elsewhere in the country.

So my question really is, can I be made redundant when in effect 'my job' will still exist?

Any advice please? I want to go into the mtg on Thurs fully armed!

Thanks,

FE

OH - I am also 5+ weeks pregnant, but not told them at work yet!!!!!

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

How do you know your job will still exist? a lot of assumption.
you need to wait and see what they say.

liney

Officially, they can reallocate your work and make you redundant, yes. If other people do similar roles then they can condense the workforce in this manner.

Of course you could tell them before they start the meeting that you are pregnant and it might scare them into reconsidering. It's worth a shot.

You aren't automatically protected because you are pregnant, and because they started the proceedure before they were aware, you couldn't realisitically claim unfair selection on that basis, but it depends how good your HR are to how they decide to proceed.

st999

If you tell them you are pregnant they will def get rid of you. That happened to a friend of mine, choice between old spinster and newly married complaining she wasn't pregnant yet, who do you think they got rid of?

Thing is, that was 10 years ago and she never has had a kid.
Stan

liney

10 years ago there wasn't much protect around for pregnant women though.

If I thought my job was seriously at risk and I was pregnant, I know it's low, but i'd bring it up. If it's just a general chat then i'd keep it quiet until i knew where it was leading.

Zazen999

st999 wrote: »

If you tell them you are pregnant they will def get rid of you. That happened to a friend of mine, choice between old spinster and newly married complaining she wasn't pregnant yet, who do you think they got rid of?

Thing is, that was 10 years ago and she never has had a kid.
Stan

You've mentioned this already today - the 'old spinster' probably had yonks of experience and was worth keeping - rather than a young inexperienced member of staff who was complaining about stuff all the time.

FairyElephant_2

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

How do you know your job will still exist? a lot of assumption.
you need to wait and see what they say.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Well what meant I suppose was that 'the work I do will still need to be done' - unless the company is going bonkers and is going to cancel the rest of the contracts and turn down the work!

Through the grapevine we gather (me & the other 2 people who have been 'summoned') that we're going to be put 'at risk' which means the start of a consultation period.

I think I will see how the meeting goes - I will 'save' the news about my pregnancy until I see how the land lies as it were. I'm nervous about telling anyone yet anyhow having suffered 2 losses already (so don't need this stress at the moment - AARRGGHHHH!) so hadn't planned on telling until I get a few weeks further on (fingers crossed).

rikbar

FairyElephant wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Well what meant I suppose was that 'the work I do will still need to be done' - unless the company is going bonkers and is going to cancel the rest of the contracts and turn down the work!

The issue over redundancy is not whether the work needs to be done, more do they need a specific person to do that work. If they feel that they can restructure the department so that your work is done by others, your role becomes redundant as the work is now done by others. Your work still exists, your role however does not.

Hope this clears it up for you, good luck with everything

Rikbar