Advice needed comparability and pay protection

TBA999

Hi can anyone please advise.

I work for a secondary school which is firstly restructuring due to budget and secondly going to Academy from 1st September. (It has been stated that the redundancies are nothing to do with going to Academy. The fact that all positions now follow their staffing structure is purely coincidental)

My position is no longer in the new staffing structure and I was advised by the Union to fill in the preference form for one of the “new” posts which I have done.

However I believe the “new” post is a 75% match for my old post and filled it in as comparability. It is my role with 1 added responsibility. On Friday I have received a letter saying “my post has changed and on ‘First Consideration’ grounds I will be “slotted’ In to the new structure”.

The letter also states “if I do not accept this position I may leave myself in a position of redundancy however, I would forfeit my right to redundancy pay”.

The “new’ position is £6k less than my current role.

I suppose my questions are

1. What is the difference between comparability and first consideration in terms of benefits to me or them?
2. Who decides if a position is comparability or first consideration and if you disagree what can you do?
3. Will I get any pay protection period and will this continue when we go to Academy in September and are no longer under local government?
4. Are they correct in saying if I do not accept I have forfeited my right to redundancy even though I applied as comparable and not first consideration?

Many thanks in advance for anyone who can offer me advice it is very much appreciated.

T x

getmore4less

You should be able to decide if a position is a suitable alternative.
You will need a list of things that sufficiently different pay and staus are high on the list given a lot of other T&C will be the same(location hours etc)

If you can't agree with the employer then an employment tribunal will have to do that.
I seems a lot of public sector situations seem to push for redeployemnt to any job with the threat of no redundancy.

I am guessing that £6k is significant drop so would be a good case for not being a suitable alternative unless protected for some time, no idea what is considered sufficient by ET these days I would want forever till pay catches up.

The union should be fighting this issue

EconomicsGirl

You would have to ask the employer if there is pay protection as it varies. I'm in the public sector and were we are there is none as its a cost cutting exercise. Having said that a lot of the jobs do not involve paycuts which is at least something as there's a 3 year pay freeze and pension rises anyway.

Assuming there's no pay protection, pay is one of the things you can argue makes a job unsuitable but I don't know what % drop would make it unsuitable and it may not even be defined. Might be worth calling ACAS, the union etc and getting the union involved with your case, they can attend meetings etc. Think you normally get TUPEd over on existing terms and conditions when you get a new employer but trouble is in this climate they can just do another restructure which is whats going to happen for some parts of where I work, they get a restructure this year of 50% then another next year. Maybe ask if there'll be a voluntary redundancy scheme too.

Good luck and hope you get things sorted.