Staff cuts and no redundancy?

mobo99

Hello all, can't sleep can you help?

There has been payroll cuts at the compnay I work for. I work in a retail outlet and have done so for the last five years. The store has been told that we have to skim off £3000 of our budget by any means.

We have been told by the Managers that there will be no redundancys and that people will be performance managed out of the business.

I myself have not had the most stella performance over the last year and fear that I may lose my job. I am a good worker who is very experienced in my role but am made to take on extra (managerial/administration) workload because of this, therefore my sales figures have suffered. This has been discussed with my manger who said he understood whilst continuing to make me do these other duties!!

I have spoken to ACAS and they said what the compnay was doing was legal (if not moral) but I may have a case for unfair dismissal if I was laid off.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should do-apart from increasing sales volume!

Thanks in advance for you time and assistance.

ceridwen

mobo99 wrote: »

Hello all, can't sleep can you help?

There has been payroll cuts at the compnay I work for. I work in a retail outlet and have done so for the last five years. The store has been told that we have to skim off £3000 of our budget by any means.

We have been told by the Managers that there will be no redundancys and that people will be performance managed out of the business.

I myself have not had the most stella performance over the last year and fear that I may lose my job. I am a good worker who is very experienced in my role but am made to take on extra (managerial/administration) workload because of this, therefore my sales figures have suffered. This has been discussed with my manger who said he understood whilst continuing to make me do these other duties!!

I have spoken to ACAS and they said what the compnay was doing was legal (if not moral) but I may have a case for unfair dismissal if I was laid off.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should do-apart from increasing sales volume!

Thanks in advance for you time and assistance.

Well - to put it plain English - they ARE about to make someone redundant and find excuses if they can to do so without paying them their due redundancy pay:(.

They're up to "dirty tricks" in other words. I hope you don't fall victim to those dirty tricks.

I suggest keeping a diary of any significant events/things said at work - with all "proof" possible of anything necessary. For one thing - you need to keep a record in that diary of your sales figures and how much of your time is spent on non sales duties. You would then have proof that the reason why you achieved, say, 80% of the sales of other people is because you spent, say, 50% of your time doing other duties. This looks likely to come to an Industrial Tribunal for someone - the only question is who.

Are you in a Union? USDAW is the appropriate one for shopworkers. If not - I suggest you join it promptly. Firstly - because they are less likely to "pick on you" if you are in a Union and secondly because you will be able to get access to Union back-up if it is you that they make excuses to sack.

On a totally different tack - forewarned is forearmed and I suggest you take a good review of your finances now to see if theres any way you can cut back on bills/make sure you're well stocked-up with food and try to have a bit of savings behind you (just in case its you that ends up claiming benefit - as benefit can sometimes take a while before they've got their act together enough to start paying it).

NB: The capital limit for savings is currently £6,000 - thats £6,000 including your last paypacket - eg for someone who received £2,000 net salary per month - then the de facto capital limit for them would be £4,000 = £4,000 savings + that last months £2,000 salary = £6,000.

Food, etc that you are stocked-up with doesn't count as "capital" obviously.

mobo99

Thanks for the advise, I will work on what you have stated.

Cheers!!

pjcox2005

Sensible advice from Ceridwen regarding ensuring you are prepared for the worst and also keeping track of the administration/managerial issues. I would suggest you make sure you've got your head down for the next few months and try to perform as best you can to make sure the bosses don't want to lose you.

The one point I would say (and apologies if it causes offence) but if there are people in a workplace underperforming then I think it's not neccessarily immoral to try and remove them from the business without paying redundancy. At my place of work, a lot of people were upset with the high redundancy packages given to the underperforming members of staff in order to get them to leave...it didn't seem fair that those who underperformed actually ended up financially better of in many cases.

Pete111

If, in dismissing a 'poor performer' the company can show that they followed their incabability /performance policy (and this itself complies with employment law) then the chances of an unfair dismissal claim being sucessful reduce significantly. However, ultimately only a tribunal can decide this

more pertinently exiting someone through a full and proper performance management process can take months and many hours of management time.Leaving aside that staff performance ought to be managed anyway, If this was only being started to effect savings of 3k this is potentially a false economy. Personally I would just or cancel the free tea / coffee / milk for the year...

mobo99

Pete111 wrote: »

If this was only being started to effect savings of 3k this is potentially a false economy. Personally I would just or cancel the free tea / coffee / milk for the year...

Thanks for all the replys, just to say its 3k in my store, there are over 500 stores nationwide some with much bigger cuts than ours.

Oh and they cut the free tea, coffee, petrol allowance, food at training days, bonuses and a good percentage of Managers and Deputy Managers over twelve months ago!

Running on bare bones now. Only place to save money is staff.

I must state that anyone who does not perform in their job role should be performance managed in the correct way, such as finding out what the issue is and helping those people with said issues. If it is lack of knowledge then train, if its confidence, encourage etc only after this proceedure has been implemented should a person be dismissed.

If performance management is introduced to get rid of staff due to payroll cuts thats a different matter. Especially when our targets have been changed to unrealistic levels two weeks before the cuts were announced. I believe its called stacking the deck in your favour.

Sorry, rant over. Thanks for all the information and tips, I have my finances in check-very good tip.

All the best!!

the_3rd_dynasty

pjcox2005 wrote: »

At my place of work, a lot of people were upset with the high redundancy packages given to the underperforming members of staff in order to get them to leave

In what way were they under performing?

ceridwen

mobo99 wrote: »

If performance management is introduced to get rid of staff due to payroll cuts thats a different matter. Especially when our targets have been changed to unrealistic levels two weeks before the cuts were announced. I believe its called stacking the deck in your favour.

Sorry, rant over. Thanks for all the information and tips, I have my finances in check-very good tip.

All the best!!

I would say you're right - about the reason for upping the targets. The first warning sign was the other "minor" type cuts and that "stacking the deck" was a strong warning sign that bigger cuts are imminent.

Sounds to me like you're "reading the runes" very accurately and that you yourself are an intelligent/articulate person. Hopefully - if its you - that has the "pack of cards" thrown at them - the fact that you ARE intelligent and articulate will help in getting another job if need be.

Hmmm....shop job....I would hazard a guess that the axe will fall in January then (ie after the Christmas Rush).

getmore4less

So what will happen.

Decide how many you think will need to go.

guess at a pecking order

Where do you think you are, above or below the cut off line plan accordingly

I suspect that the first few to get picked will be the timid ones, those they just don't like and those that are genuine rubbish.

They will get the talk

" your performance if not up to scratch, might be a good idea to find another job quickly or just resign so you don't have SACKED on your record"


Anyone that goes through the peformance process buys time and if OK stands a chance of seeing this through once the target headcount as been reached.

mobo99

getmore4less wrote: »

They will get the talk

" your performance if not up to scratch, might be a good idea to find another job quickly or just resign so you don't have SACKED on your record"

Hey you are spot on, I know of three members of staff who have had that chat with the boss. I am not one of them, I think I will be alright due to my experience, knowledge and reasonable sales figures.

Having said that in the new world where cash is king, sales figures are everything, knowledge of sales/administration/banking/cash and department management are not taken into account when your "performance" is reviewed. Its all about the money you take and how profitable that money is that secures your job/career.

I find it funny the way my company is playing the staff. If you remove key elements of an engine it might work for a while but will not work to the best of its ability and after a while all those parts will get worn down to the point the engine stops!

Thanks to everyone once again.:T

getmore4less

Any chance of a wisper of the company?
Many don't like redundancies on the record because it effects share price.