Husbands company handed out letters to everyone,redundancy meetings on Friday

shelovestobuystuff

Help.
I really need some advice please.We always thought my husbands job was safe and even if the company had any problems that his job withing it was one of the safest.They all got letters on Friday!
There are redundancies being made and his field is affected.Him and his 7 civil engineering colleagues are all to have a meeting next friday where they will find out if they have been selected for redundancy.They are still taking on trainee engineers and using agency engineers so he really cant see how,if they are cutting back on engineers,they can reasonably select him as one of the ones to go.As well as the 7 engineers all of the middle management have had the same sort of letter.Husband is extremely stressed about this as you can imagine as we dont know what is happening until Friday.
My question is about how they select people for redundancy.The letter says the selection process takes into account performance,service,sick days taken etc etc etc.
My husband is the best engineer the company have,the managers request him to work their jobs because they know he does a good job,he is their longest serving engineer and was their first ever salaried engineer,he has never taken a single sick day in his 12 years with them,he didnt even take paternity leave though he was entitled,he hardly ever takes full week or fortnight holiday entitlement but instead takes the odd day when he isnt too busy at work and makes it into a long weekend instead,he does take on site management responsibilities gladly and does it better than some of the site managers and can manage and work numerous sites at once while other engineers manage half the volume or less.
Based on that,if they are getting rid of some engineers,should he be safe.Is it last in first out?Have they got to stick to their own criteria for deciding who to get rid of,if they do then he is safe.
Advice please.
Oh he has also been told he can have someone there to support and represent him at this meeting on Friday,who should he take,he has no idea what the process is.The letter says he can take a union rep but as far as he was aware there isnt any union involved with his company,he is certainly not a member of anything like that.

He is also an experienced civil engineer not just a site engineer with larger scale builds and roads and has built bus stations and water works in the past so if the reduncancies are just within the housing section of the company there might be the possibility he can be transfered to roads,haulage,commercial construction side of the business etc.If all else fails he has an HGV licence too so I am sure he will cover the mortgage whatever happens.Its just extremely worrying not to know.

getmore4less

No job is safe it something to get used to, might survive this round but there could be more if business is on the declie.

Do some reading on-line,

Search redundancy process ACAS BERR CAB to start with there is loads of info on the correct process and what needs to be considered.
here is one to get you going
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=747

No point in repeating all the info that is available


From a personal point of view the key information will be
How many are in the selection pool and how many positions are left.
and how you score on the selection criteria

The other key info is the redundancy packages on offer will it be statutory or enhanced.
12years service so 12weeks notice or more if contractual, redundancy will be based on 12years statutory is capped at £380pw, with 1week per year(more if over 41).

How many people total are they looking to make redundant if 20+ then they should be electing reps.

As a group of 7 they could support each other at the meetings or if there is someone from another area that could help everyone,
The first consultation meting should be to explain the process and why they need to cut back and how they plan to do it also explain the package should you get selected. Sometimes this invoves discusions of salary so if this is sensitive amoungst the group.

There should be an opportunity to make sugestions to reduce the need to make redundancies or reduce the impact.

Have a good read of info you can find
There will be loads of questions

shelovestobuystuff

Thanks,
I had a closer look at the letter and it states that a review is currently underway and the results of that review including outcomes of the selection process for redundancies will be notified in person at this interview.Its a very quick process,7 days from first hearing of it to getting redundancy notices.
We have had a look at the other depts within the company and he could easily be moved to another dept so I will make sure he suggests that if it comes to it.
If the worst happens then we will take it as an opportunity to make a big change in our lives and up sticks and move to the highlands.So even the worst case scenario is beginning to look appealing.Its just a way of taking the worry out of it by thinking of a silver lining.

lilac_lady

When it comes down to it we're all just a number when we're employed. I hope your husband and you get the result you want, whether it's moving to the highlands or keeping his job.

wayno

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

Help.
I really need some advice please.We always thought my husbands job was safe and even if the company had any problems that his job withing it was one of the safest.They all got letters on Friday!
There are redundancies being made and his field is affected.Him and his 7 civil engineering colleagues are all to have a meeting next friday where they will find out if they have been selected for redundancy.They are still taking on trainee engineers and using agency engineers so he really cant see how,if they are cutting back on engineers,they can reasonably select him as one of the ones to go.As well as the 7 engineers all of the middle management have had the same sort of letter.Husband is extremely stressed about this as you can imagine as we dont know what is happening until Friday.
My question is about how they select people for redundancy.The letter says the selection process takes into account performance,service,sick days taken etc etc etc.
My husband is the best engineer the company have,the managers request him to work their jobs because they know he does a good job,he is their longest serving engineer and was their first ever salaried engineer,he has never taken a single sick day in his 12 years with them,he didnt even take paternity leave though he was entitled,he hardly ever takes full week or fortnight holiday entitlement but instead takes the odd day when he isnt too busy at work and makes it into a long weekend instead,he does take on site management responsibilities gladly and does it better than some of the site managers and can manage and work numerous sites at once while other engineers manage half the volume or less.
Based on that,if they are getting rid of some engineers,should he be safe.Is it last in first out?Have they got to stick to their own criteria for deciding who to get rid of,if they do then he is safe.
Advice please.
Oh he has also been told he can have someone there to support and represent him at this meeting on Friday,who should he take,he has no idea what the process is.The letter says he can take a union rep but as far as he was aware there isnt any union involved with his company,he is certainly not a member of anything like that.

He is also an experienced civil engineer not just a site engineer with larger scale builds and roads and has built bus stations and water works in the past so if the reduncancies are just within the housing section of the company there might be the possibility he can be transfered to roads,haulage,commercial construction side of the business etc.If all else fails he has an HGV licence too so I am sure he will cover the mortgage whatever happens.Its just extremely worrying not to know.

Should your husband be looking for work within the haulage industrie ,I can offer him on-going regular work if he has plans to buy his own truck I can be contacted on Tel 0800 030 5013 My names wayne im based in cheshire unsure whether this is to far for him but, my companie is Cheshire Transport Ltd if this can help you ?

wayno

Should your husband be looking for work within the haulage industrie ,I can offer him on-going regular work if he has plans to buy his own truck I can be contacted on Tel 0800 030 5013 My names wayne im based in cheshire unsure whether this is to far for him but, my companie is Cheshire Transport Ltd if this can help you ?

bristol_rob

Really sad news. I was made redundant a few years back in similar circumstances and at the time one of the worse experiences I ever had. But actually helped me realise I was wasting my time with what I was doing and put more energy into improving, got a great job and didn't look back.

If your husband has been there a number of years it could be financially beneficial to take redundancy, especially if your mortgage etc is covered. The letter is a standard one though and it is difficult to judge the likely outcome without more facts. If he does end up going into consultation most companies operating in such short timescales provide legal support if not go to citizens advice r.e. legal aid

jimbms

You will find it may not be that bad, a lot of companies worldwide have been making inhouse engineers redundant and it seems you lot in the UK are one of the last for this to happen. The main reason behing this is that it is easier to take engineer on a project by project self employed contract basis, that way the company does not have to pay out insurance and have as many admin etc and they don't have engineers sitting around between projects, there is a lot of work around for civils (take here in IoM a new runway) and he may find out of the blue an agency contacts him offering him his old position back but as self employed on contract, or even they will tell him that in the meeting