Redundancy enigma

eddiehop

My boss summoned me to a meeting where I was informed that fellow employees were refusing to work with me. I requested a meeting with the employees to work out any problems that they had. This was denied and I was asked to work from home which I refused. I have never received any verbal or written warning nor had I had any arguments with the employees involved. During the next day I was called to a further two meetings, one lasting 2 hours. I requested that an independent witness be present to minute the meetings were taken but this was denied and my employer stated she would take minutes. At these meetings she gave the names of those who had raised a grievance against me and supplied me with information as to why they refused to work with me. What followed was a character assassination with no basis in fact and no actual incidents were brought to light. I asked that other employees be questioned on my behalf but this was denied. To cut a long story short all my attempts to resolve any issues in an informal way were denied. I was told to work from home although no work was provided. I have sent in a grievance to the firm about her. Today I received a letter proposing a meeting to discuss redundancy. In this letter there is no mention of any employees raising grievances against me but she instead stated that the redundancy (which she claims is only a provisional decision) is for financial reasons and due to a restructure of the company. She has arranged a meeting for Monday. However, I have been to my GP and have been signed off for two weeks. Could someone advise as to my rights in this situation. I am at a loss as to the shift from the disciplinary nature of the meetings held and the subsequent letter of redundancy.

Thanks
eddiehop

ponymad_3

Sorry you find yourself in this very difficult position. I have just been through a year of a harasssment case against me which has been very stressful , so I can emaphise with your situation. It also came out of the blue having worked for a company for 28 yrs . I have been supported by my union... due you have this support available. ACAS were also helpful in expalining the law to me. My company have rules regarding meetings etc being accompanied, but despite this the whole process was very one sided and the appeal totally laughable... My legal advice was i had a real case for grievance myself....you have nt given background as to the time you have been with the company, the size of the company... do they have an HR department... Please give us more details

eddiehop

ponymad wrote: »

....you have nt given background as to the time you have been with the company, the size of the company... do they have an HR department... Please give us more details

Thanks for the reply. The company is small with only 14 employees. I have been employed there for 6 years. There is no HR Department. I have had a reply to my letter of grievance and by its wording it would appear the company directors are falling in line with my boss. I shall be having a meeting regarding my grievance with my boss to which I can take another employee. On the other hand I have been told I cannot discuss the matter with any other employees either at work or socially. I feel I have been ostracised and that if I were to include another employee to talk on my behalf they would also be at risk of redundancy. I don't know who I can take to my grievance meeting as the company stipulated in writing that I can be accompanied by another employee or union representative but there is no union. I have forced the grievance in writing. However I feel my boss will use this as an opportunity to put me on trial. While she once made mention of redundancy this seems no longer an option. I realise my situation is a rather twisted one. I am completely out of the loop at work and don't know what is being said in my absence.

SarEl

I am going to try to give you some very good advice, which is going to be advice that you do not like. I would suggest that you take the redundancy, and try to negotiate a compromise agreement for an agreed reference and perhaps a little extra money. Let me explain why. You are already off work for stress. If you fight, it isn't going to get any better, it will get worse. And if you fight this to its logical end - a tribunal - it will be many months of stress, at the end of which there is no guarantee that you will win.

As things stand, I do not know why the other staff have complaiend about you, why they are ostracising you, or what has happened to damage relationships in this way after six years of working there. But something does appear to have happened. I am not saying this is your fault - just that such things do not appear without some form of reason. They appear to have decided, for whatever reason, to take the easy way out of dealing with this by deciding to make you redundant.

Providing that they follow the redundancy process properly (which is not exactly hard to do) then you will have very little chance of arguing successfully at a tribunal - if the post you hold disappears, and you are consulted with etc., then it will be fair in law. The "history" - even recent history - about this grievance and the rest will be irrelevant - in other words, your allegations about why they made you redundant do not matter. The only thing that will matter is whether they followed the correct process, which I will lay bets that they will. And that is a best case scenario.

The other scenario is that they will drop the redundancy and proceed to a disciplinary. They do not have to take an informal approach or agree to an informal approach being taken to resolve whatever the problem is. They have complaints from other members of staff who refuse to work with you because of XX reason - I don't know what that reason is. They can, depending on what those allegations are, relatively easily argue that the work relationship is so untenable as to justify dismissal, and such a dismissal would very possibly be fair in law. Again, provided they get the process right, and are careful, it won't be that hard. And in this scenario you could loose your job, loose the tribunal, and also have no reference.

You are obviously finished there. I don't know why, and obviously it isn't at all fair (in the sense of the world) - but there is every possibility that by treading carefully it will be fair in law. If you have the energy, resiliency and time, to pursue this through a tribunal you still only have a "might win" - and you will be in a very stressful situation. If you think that the employer is a nasty piece of work right now, you have no idea how bad it will get - the pressure of going to tribunal is hard for a claimant backed by a union or lawyer, and without either you will bear the whole brunt of it.

However, if you make a tribunal claim, win or loose it is going to cost the company in legal fees. So there may be some area for negotiation - a bit more money for you, and an agreed reference (references being gold dust when it comes to getting the next job) - in order to save them from the risk of incurring costs fighting a case. You will have to be relatively "hard nosed" to front such a negotiation yourself, so you are going to have to pick yourself up by the scruff of the neck and get down and dirty - you don't have time or space to be stressed and unable to cope. But there is utterly no reason why you can't do it.

I would suggest a tough letter saying that you have taken legal advice (technically true - I am a lawyer and have given you advice!) and are confident that you have a good case to make a claim to a tribunal for unfair selection for redundancy, unfair dismissal and breach of contract (do not elaborate on those things - the key to a bluff is to keep things simple and keep the headlines short, with no explanations at all). You are currently off sick with stress and the current situation is not improving your health, so you are willing to consdier a proposal, under a compromise agreement, to resolve the situation. Do not make any proposals - see what, if anything, they come back with.