Being made Redundant - Advice please!

stacko

Hi all,

Last week my boss had a meeting with me in which, out of the blue, he brought up the suggestion of making me redundant. I was naturally a bit shocked by this although I'm aware that the company is trying to reduce its wage bill.

However I am the only person in the company who can do what I do, I am in charge of the website, the internal systems, graphic design, powerpoint presentations etc. I am also on the management team so contibute to how the company is run.

It's a small company (20 employees) so there isn't anyone else with these skills. I know I'll be asked to train others to be able to do certain aspects of my role and I think other aspects like graphic design and websites will be outsourced.

So is this all fair and above board? Should I be training people to do a job that effectively the company says doesn't need to be done any more? In reality, the reason for redundancy is that they want to save on my salary, but having been there for 7 and a half years something doesn't feel quite right about it all.

lalli_pickle

Have you checked on the yougov site whether it classes as redundancy or not?

There is also some info about unfair dismissal which is what I presume you are leading up to.

As far as I know if the other people are happy and able to do your job as well as their own then that can make your job redundant in certain circumstances, unfair as it may seem.

stacko

Hi - thanks for the response.

I have been checking sites like that and I think it does class as a proper redundancy as the company is downsizing and trying to reduce costs.

What I am specifically talking about is the skills that I have that no-one else in the company has. Should I be expected to transfer those skills and knowledge to other people because basically the company wants the same skills and knowledge for less money.

I have no problem with people taking over functions of my job that they are able to do already but it doesn't seem right that the company can say 'We can't afford you any more but we want you to show other people what to do'

getmore4less

Your current role will be probably be broad enough to include these sort of tasks anyway.
Training and supporting people for when you would have been off on holiday or sick.

Untill you leave you are still an employee and requierd to do these sort of tasks as part of your contract.

Worst case they get you to document everything properly(which it should be allready) so someone else can do the basic role and support the existing set up.

The main skills that are difficult to tranfer are the creative ones that actualy improve the business.

Be suportive and hope that whoever is chosen fails, then they need you back as a consultant.

Start negotiating a good leaving package or justifying why they should make someone elses role redundant by distributing their tasks.

LittleVoice

stacko wrote: »

So is this all fair and above board? Should I be training people to do a job that effectively the company says doesn't need to be done any more? In reality, the reason for redundancy is that they want to save on my salary, but having been there for 7 and a half years something doesn't feel quite right about it all.

They are saving money and want the work done but not by one individual. So you would not be training people to do a job which the company says doesn't need to be done any more, they just want the tasks doing in a different configuration.

You have already worked out (via directgov I expect, not yougov which is a private survey company) that what they want is covered by redundancy rules.

What they have to do is ensure they follow the rules in dimissing you on the grounds of redundancy if that is what it comes to.