Redundency and employment law clarification

KieranB

Hi guys,

My mother has today been told that their company are making cutbacks and have blamed the reason solely on a huge amount of money that have had to write off due to a system error.

In general, a certain class of product was sold and payment taken, but a better product was received.

The memo clearly states that they are dissapointed that no one brought this error to a supervisers attention however my mother did so a few months back and it was ignored. Unfortunately this was only mentioned verbally once.

If she was one of the few made redundant, where does she stand?

Thanks!

londondulwich

Cut backs could refer to anything, Christmas bonus/ office party/ training days etc...

If redundancy is the route taken, the selection criteria have to be transparent. If more than one employee is considered for redundancy it is good form to use a marking matrix. The marking criteria sometimes include categories like enthusiasm, team fit, flexibility, etc...

It is unlikely that one of the categories management would use will be "detecting and reporting software error" or "failure to detect and report software error" or even "failure to act on warning of software error".

If this is the scenario, the warning your mother gave will not be a decisive factor.

If, however, the company is looking to blame or punish someone, the landscape changes.

If the warning was communicated clearly with enough information to have been taken seriously and given to the appropriate person, then it is reasonable to expect the company to bear this in mind when they discipline or dismiss people.

Your mother might want to hold on to that memo, or if she no longer has it, get a copy from another colleague.

vicshippers

Completely agee with londondulwich - the fact that she mentioned it verbally doesn't change the fact that the company lost money and needs to make cutbacks.

Wait and see what they say - she might not be in line for redundancy anyway. If she is then the system should be fair based on other factors ie job type, length of contract etc etc

Hope she comes out on the rosey side of things.

getmore4less

KieranB wrote: »

Hi guys,

My mother has today been told that their company are making cutbacks and have blamed the reason solely on a huge amount of money that have had to write off due to a system error.

In general, a certain class of product was sold and payment taken, but a better product was received.

The memo clearly states that they are dissapointed that no one brought this error to a supervisers attention however my mother did so a few months back and it was ignored. Unfortunately this was only mentioned verbally once.

If she was one of the few made redundant, where does she stand?

Thanks!

I don't think she can do much to use this verbal comunication to save herself if on the list.

She could raise the issue of the companies procedures are not clear on how to report such issues since when she did notify the supervisor nothing was done there should be a direct line of comunication to the people that can stop the sales. to review the case and save the company money if valid.

Classic case of make sure you shout load when your company is loosing money due to an error and not a genuine promotion.

Look at the number of internet cases of mis pricing, Argos often mis substitute by the looks of it, Tesco leaving SEL labels cost a fortune there is a dedicated thread on MSE.

B&Q have a big legal case looming ovr a missprice
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/426290/rainwater-saving-underground-tank-1/


IT is not just the computer people still have to ship the stuff and the processes should have check to make sure these sort of errors are caught quickly.