just been made Redundant: Was it fair?

JupiterSun

Hi all, I've recently been made redundant from my design job - i was one of 18 members of staff to go from the company. I had worked there for over 4.5 years, full time. 2 (including me) went from our office of 8. The 8 also included my boss, even though when i had my 1-1 consultation with the Financial Director I was told my boss's job was not at risk.

Im not sure if the process has been done fairly and how best to go about appealing it. We were originally warned of the forthcoming redundancies and given a letter stating departments to be effected and numbers to go in each - i.e. Design: 2 from a pool of 8.
Over the next couple of weeks we had 1-1 consultations with the Financial Director. At this stage I was told that the redundancies would be asessed by a fair scoring system - criteria including length of service, flexibility, performance etc. After this stage I was told that the scores would be collated and that the people then at severe risk of being made redundant would be called back for another meeting to discuss it.

Almost a month on from the original date we were first told of the redundancies I was told that I was redundant. This was done 5 minutes before the end of the working day. I was called into the FD's office and handed a letter stating that my employment was terminated. In this letter it said that I had the right to contest the companys decision within 7 days. To me this was not a meeting to discuss my redundancy - it was simply to inform me. Was this fair? I was out as of then, and am due to be paid 4 weeks pay in lieu of my notice period (aswell as statutory redundancy and unused holiday entitlement).

Within 7 days I contacted the company and asked for my scoring on how it had been determined that I was redundant. I also emailed the company stating that I was awaiting my scores until I could decide whether or not I was contesting the decision.

My scores arrived a couple of days later. Even though there were 8 people in our department, the list of scores they have sent me are only for 6 people. Everyone's name apart from my own have been blanked out but working on the scores given for years of service I am almost sure which scores are for which people. I have a masters qualification - the highest in the office, yet have been given the same score as most of the office for my skills / qualifications. The score has been given a 20% weighting. Performance has been given a 25% rating and despite how hard I worked and how much work I did I have only been scored a 3 for average. The other person to go also scored 3. Everyone else scored 4. Even more of a joke is that myself and the other person to have been made redundant were working on some licensed product designs - a new area for the company and one which they want to push forward. They have just employed a licensing manager to push this forward. Me and the other now redundant person were working on this area and were only a handful of staff who could competently use the software for doing this. However, for the score of future potential, a 10% weighting, both myself and the other redundant person were given a 3 for average yet everyone else scored a 4.

I think they had decided long ago who was going. I think myself and the other person to go were quite likely to be on better salaries than other members of staff - therefore the company has made a better saving by getting rid of us. I should have been attending a meeting several weeks ago with one of my customers, but was extremely surprised that the company insisted on another designer going rather than me and gave me no reason for it. Aswell as this, I am someone who is not afraid to stand up for themselves and speak up if I think something is not being done right. Even though personality issues can not be used as justification in these cases, I am quite certain they have played a part.

I've not been made redundant before and not really sure of the best way to go forward. If I appeal to the company I have to state the grounds Im appealing on. I realise I could try to go down the unfair dismissal / tribunal route but do not want to spend an absolute fortune on it all. It is more on principle than anything else that I want to make a stand if they have in fact done this all unfairly. It would not surprise me if they have. They are a small family run business and would not surprise me if they are not doing things above board. I am worried that if I kick up a fuss I may get a really rubbish reference off them and also be blacklisted within the industry for future employment. Ideally I want to get a good reference, another job and my payout and then take the matter further but I do not know if this is advisable given the timescales as I think i only have 3 months to take the matter to tribunal stage. I think my best way forward is to appeal in writing to the company but im not sure if I actually have enough of a case to do this.

Any advice please would be much appreciated!

thanks!

Judas

suzy113 wrote: »

Hi all, I've recently been made redundant from my design job - i was one of 18 members of staff to go from the company. I had worked there for over 4.5 years, full time. 2 (including me) went from our office of 8. The 8 also included my boss, even though when i had my 1-1 consultation with the Financial Director I was told my boss's job was not at risk.

Im not sure if the process has been done fairly and how best to go about appealing it. We were originally warned of the forthcoming redundancies and given a letter stating departments to be effected and numbers to go in each - i.e. Design: 2 from a pool of 8.
Over the next couple of weeks we had 1-1 consultations with the Financial Director. At this stage I was told that the redundancies would be asessed by a fair scoring system - criteria including length of service, flexibility, performance etc. After this stage I was told that the scores would be collated and that the people then at severe risk of being made redundant would be called back for another meeting to discuss it.

Almost a month on from the original date we were first told of the redundancies I was told that I was redundant. This was done 5 minutes before the end of the working day. I was called into the FD's office and handed a letter stating that my employment was terminated. In this letter it said that I had the right to contest the companys decision within 7 days. To me this was not a meeting to discuss my redundancy - it was simply to inform me. Was this fair? I was out as of then, and am due to be paid 4 weeks pay in lieu of my notice period (aswell as statutory redundancy and unused holiday entitlement).

Within 7 days I contacted the company and asked for my scoring on how it had been determined that I was redundant. I also emailed the company stating that I was awaiting my scores until I could decide whether or not I was contesting the decision.

My scores arrived a couple of days later. Even though there were 8 people in our department, the list of scores they have sent me are only for 6 people. Everyone's name apart from my own have been blanked out but working on the scores given for years of service I am almost sure which scores are for which people. I have a masters qualification - the highest in the office, yet have been given the same score as most of the office for my skills / qualifications. The score has been given a 20% weighting. Performance has been given a 25% rating and despite how hard I worked and how much work I did I have only been scored a 3 for average. The other person to go also scored 3. Everyone else scored 4. Even more of a joke is that myself and the other person to have been made redundant were working on some licensed product designs - a new area for the company and one which they want to push forward. They have just employed a licensing manager to push this forward. Me and the other now redundant person were working on this area and were only a handful of staff who could competently use the software for doing this. However, for the score of future potential, a 10% weighting, both myself and the other redundant person were given a 3 for average yet everyone else scored a 4.

I think they had decided long ago who was going. I think myself and the other person to go were quite likely to be on better salaries than other members of staff - therefore the company has made a better saving by getting rid of us. I should have been attending a meeting several weeks ago with one of my customers, but was extremely surprised that the company insisted on another designer going rather than me and gave me no reason for it. Aswell as this, I am someone who is not afraid to stand up for themselves and speak up if I think something is not being done right. Even though personality issues can not be used as justification in these cases, I am quite certain they have played a part.

I've not been made redundant before and not really sure of the best way to go forward. If I appeal to the company I have to state the grounds Im appealing on. I realise I could try to go down the unfair dismissal / tribunal route but do not want to spend an absolute fortune on it all. It is more on principle than anything else that I want to make a stand if they have in fact done this all unfairly. It would not surprise me if they have. They are a small family run business and would not surprise me if they are not doing things above board. I am worried that if I kick up a fuss I may get a really rubbish reference off them and also be blacklisted within the industry for future employment. Ideally I want to get a good reference, another job and my payout and then take the matter further but I do not know if this is advisable given the timescales as I think i only have 3 months to take the matter to tribunal stage. I think my best way forward is to appeal in writing to the company but im not sure if I actually have enough of a case to do this.

Any advice please would be much appreciated!

thanks!

The process itself sounds fair; you could appeal the scoring and see if you can get your ratings upgraded and its probably worth doing this but you will need evidence to support this.

A note re qualifications; just because you have a masters doesnt mean a lot; you need to consider relevance and requirements. If the job doesnt require a masters then it won't necessarily score highly.

You say personality issues cannot be used; but arguably if you are seen as argumentative or cause problems this can be classed as performance; maybe this is why you scored less here?

You must appeal though if you want to take it further as otherwise Tribunials will look less favourably on you; as for lack of reference, reputation etc its a risk you have to decide whether to take.

Ultimately someone had to be made redundant so from that basis it is fair and scoring etc is widely opinion based so short of finding any major flaws I would suggest you consider after an appeal moving on as you probably wont win at an ET or such.

SarEl

Agreed. On the face of it the process used holds up to scrutiny, and since you are not entitled to see anyone else scores (only anonymised data) then you will never be able to make direct comparisions, even if you could evidence them. You may suspect that the deision was a foregone conclsion (frankly, it often is) but you cannot prove it, whilst the employer has a full process proving that they did it correctly. A tribunal will not consider argument about whether the scores where fair vis-a-vis other people, only whether the process undertaken was fair or not. You should appeal if you feel that it wasn't scored correctly, but I am farid that on the face of what you have said, I would not expect you to win a tribunal.

JupiterSun

thanks for your advice. I will have a think about what to do, im concentrating on getting a new job first! thanks again, suzy113