OH got made redundant today :(

*Kat*

OH's branch merged with another branch a couple of months ago.
He was sent to old branch for those months to transfer all stock from the warehouse to the new branch. He would go there alone (get given keys and do it).

Anyway, today, OH, and 2 others from the same branch were all made redundant based on a scoring scheme. OH got the lowest score, even though he completed all the work which was required + more. He's really frustrated as people at the original branch have written warnings for attendance and not actually doing anything at work.

What should he do?

Emmzi

ask for the selection criteria and appeal.

*Kat*

He has the points thing : skills, flexibility, attendance, added value, efficiency and then total, and its marked from 5 being the best (outstanding) down to 1 being "incomplete" OH got 2, 2, 2, 4, 2 = 12 out of 25, lowest mark out of everyone. It's just BS. OH and the other guy who got made redundant used to stay behind to sort things out for the next morning when everyone had gone home, and he gets a 2 for flexibility and a 2 for attendance (he's had 1 sick day the entire year). *grumble*

Emmzi

then appeal. grumbling won't do anything!

*Kat*

Emmzi wrote: »

then appeal. grumbling won't do anything!

True true!!

fitzmum

So sorry to hear about your news - its devastating when it happens.

Exaclty the same thing happend 2 years ago with my OH and 30 others in his organisation - been in the company for 23 years and was highly skilled yet they'd just taken on 30 new staff all on a lower grade of pay. The company used a sophisticated scoring system to decide on who went and not 1 of the new people went!

My hubby and many of his colleagues who had been there 20yrs+ scored less than people who had been there 6 months! No sickness in the previous 4 years, no disciplinary yet he scored only 7 points out of 25 for skills & knowledge which translated as 'needs significant supervision'!

It was plain to anyone that it was a long term money saving exercise on the part of the company to get rid of longer serving members of staff who were on higher grades of pay and were in a final salary pension scheme but keep on new members of staff who were on lower grades and were not in the pension scheme.

It was a strongly unionised organisation but even their hands were tied in helping as they had agreed the scoring criteria! Effectively they were stitched up too as the scoring was then carried out by managers who had their own agenda and scored highly the people they did want & lower the people they didn't want.

It went from appeal eventually to a tribunal but we didn't get anywhere as the tribunal ruled that as the company had implemented a scoring system and that it was set out 'fairly' and measured all of the peoples skills/sickness/disciplinary etc they couldn't delve into individuals scores and so thats where it ended. Didn't get anywhere.

It just proved to me that organisations can bend scoring systems any way they like and get rid of ANYONE they want to as long as they tie it up in a pretty parcel and do their homework

Good luck - my OH was lucky to find a job very quickly afterwards but the anger, hurt and devastation is still very hard to get over.

ALIBOBSY

Sympathies OP. In same situation here. OH was made redundant at start of the month. Basically it was your job has gone, you can interview for a new job on a reduced rate (at least 8k!!!! less-and maybe/probably get made redundant later in the year/next year on a lower pay) or take a compromise agreement and leave there and then.

We are lucky we have a low mortgage and on the benefits we can live and cover all the bills (by cutting back and not saving/op mortgage) and thankd to MSE no debts hanging over us.

With savings and the payoff, plus the benefits we aren't panicking yet, but it is still worrying. He is in IT and was in the public sector so we expected his job to either go or be contracted out. He is in the first group of MANY to go where he worked and probably alot more across the country.

Whilst your OH can look into appealing/possible tribunal this all takes time and there is no guarantees, particularly from the union advice which sounds like the bosses have got it all sewn up. In the meanwhile you need to access you current situation and get sorted. This makes things seem alot less worrying.

First thing we did was make a list of all the companies/people we needed to contact.
So you need to call any insurance companies you may have for redundancy either direct policies or on cards/loans/mortgages etc.
Then look at benefits available, if you get child tax credits (don't know your age or circumstances sorry) they do the review pretty fast, alot quicker than the JSA award lol so let them know asap.
Ring the claims line at the DWP asap to get your claim in as it is near impossible to get backdating anymore.
Ring you local council- mine advised me I could cancel that months direct debit whilst awaiting my award and they would note the system that a JSA/Council tax benefit claim would follow-the CT and or HB claim is done at the same time as the jobseekers claim by the DWP and passed over.
Tick things off the list as you do them and make notes of what what said/needs to be done.

Consider any other benefits you may get that help. EG if you have kids look into free school meals, the benefits will likely get you an NHS exemption cert so you can get free prescriptions/dentistry/eye tests and glasses etc. We are all due eye tests so are booked in for half term-kids are free anyway, but OH and I will get the first free set either of us has had.
The way I look at it OH and I have never signed on before and both of us worked from being teens (we both did part time work whilst students), so we will claim every bit that will help us whilst not earning and get back to work asap.

The Job centre made OH laugh, when they said how many jobs will you apply for in a week. OH has some specialist IT skills and is going through a number of agents so said about 5-6 jobs a week sorry. The girl laughed and said oh no we will just put 1 application a week on your agreement-crazy.

Finally use this fab site (if you haven't already) and reduce all your bills al la the money saving diet. Then I recomend the OS boards where you can cut your food spending right down-after all when time rich cash poor cooking from scratch is the way to go.
Plus keep an eye on the bargain boards to get those crissy pressies at knock down prices. We have also told the family and the kids not to expect too much this year because of the circumstances.

Good luck

ali x

Lincoln_Imp

For a start i would check the attendance score
We had simliar at our place last year ,5 point max then 1 point deducted for each occasion of absence
Scoring 2 points doesnt make sense and doesnt add up for 1 day off ..i would ask how they scored it

*Kat*

It's so annoying that they can get away with this BS. The company doesnt have a union or anything. *sigh* I dont know if OH is going to appeal it, I told him it's his decision in the end, and I can only support him with whichever decision he makes.

We're moving house in a week too, I dont know whether we should tell teh new landlord or not.