Redundancy and illness

123helpme

Hi

I have been poorly for some time, and last attended work in 2010. My employer has been very understanding of my condition and I have been cooperative and understanding of the situation my employer found themselves in due to my absence, which led to them outsourcing some elements of my role which I was fully aware of and supportive of.

I was accepted onto PHI in February and my employer then had to resource my job and did so by distributing my other duties to other employees, at the same time we had our budgets cut by our main stakeholder which meant that parts of my distributed job role were now no longer required.

To my surprise my specialist informed me that I was fit to return to work, I was expecting to remain on PHI for the foreseeable future, I contacted my employer and we had a meeting at which we discussed my job role and I fully understood that my role no longer existed in the format it did prior to my illness if at all. I need to say at this time that the entire company is only 6 employees including me. My employer reiterated what had happened with my role, which I was aware of anyway, a this meeting it was intimated that my job role may be redundant due to the issues above, I understand why my employer has reached this conclusion, and we agreed that we would meet again to allow my employer the opportunity to consider my alternatives to redundancy. That meeting was today and I was informed that sadly my job role is redundant, I intend to appeal the decision as I feel that there is some small elements of my job role that still remain albeit being carried out by others, but this obviously will not constitute a full time position, which I am OK about as I didn't really want to return full time anyway.

I wish I had found this forum last week before my meeting today, but never mind. I am planning on appealing on the basis if disability discrimination as I have mental health problems and also that I don't really believe that the job role is genuinely redundant it has just been redeployed amongst my colleagues. How should I word the letter, and guidance would be appreciated and any other points greatly received.

I am in a difficult position as I can understand why my employer has done what they have done but that doesn't mean I should just accept it does it?

SarEl

If the remaining parts of the job have been redeployed amongst other colleagues then it is redundant - it was from the moment that parts of it were outsourced. The remaining parts of the job have been redistributed as a necessity because you were not there - but the role that you left is not there any more. Jobs don't get made "partly redundant". The employer was not underhand or dishonest in what they were doing - they kept you fully informed and they did exactly the right thing in, despite needing the work to be done, not making you redundant or otherwise terminating your contract (which given the size of the employer, they would have been perfectly able to do lawfully, disabled or not) so that you would be able to claim the PHI. So in a sense, it's great that you are fit to return to work - but I see neither a case for disability discrimination nor for unfair dismissal. There has been a reduction in headcount, so that is a redundancy; that reduction was forced on the employer by your long term absence and their inability to carry the full workload without changes; it is a small employer that cannot be expected to carry a long-term sickness but they acted with pretty exemplary behaviour throughout; and the crunch point is that there isn't money to fund the post anyway after cuts which meant that parts of the post were no longer required.. This is pretty much a case of an awful outcome for everyone based on everyone doing the right thing even when they could have acted differently. It is therefore worth asking whether there are part-time roles available or which may be available, but that is somewhat differnt than an appeal - that is about negotiating whether there are other options - which there may not now be.

The only other possibility here that I can see is if your former job and the jobs others do are so similar that a selection should be made as to who is made redundant - but that would be a hard road to follow since you are arguing that one of your collegaues and not you should be made redundant (assuming there are similar jobs). If you are successful, it may alienate your existing colleagues who have had to carry the workload whilst you were off sick, and feel that it isn't fair that someone who carried that workload should then be displaced. It also isn't guaranteed that you wouldn't still be selected.

123helpme

Thanks SarEl.

I guess today's outcome albeit not unexpected has still knocked me as I don't honestly now what I am going to do, I am fortunate to not have large outgoings and the redundancy package is very generous, but still all the same I really liked my job. I guess I will take the weekend to think and will contact my company next week about possible part time work, I did mention this during the consultation but there was nothing available. I couldn't even say that another colleague should have been made redundant in place of me as my job role was mine alone, being so small we each had areas of specific responsibility with some limited areas of crossover.

I guess I just feel gutted at the moment

LadyMissA

123helpme wrote: »

Thanks SarEl.

I guess today's outcome albeit not unexpected has still knocked me as I don't honestly now what I am going to do, I am fortunate to not have large outgoings and the redundancy package is very generous, but still all the same I really liked my job. I guess I will take the weekend to think and will contact my company next week about possible part time work, I did mention this during the consultation but there was nothing available. I couldn't even say that another colleague should have been made redundant in place of me as my job role was mine alone, being so small we each had areas of specific responsibility with some limited areas of crossover.

I guess I just feel gutted at the moment

how have you managed to stay employed by the company if you have been ill for so long? I know I would have been let go at my last job if sick for 4 weeks or more

SarEl

LadyMissA wrote: »

how have you managed to stay employed by the company if you have been ill for so long? I know I would have been let go at my last job if sick for 4 weeks or more

Because, quite frankly, the employer has acted to the highest standards within a difficult position for all parties. The OP clearly has qualified as disabled, and the employer or employee had PHI in place which protected their income if the employee was unable to work. Neither of which, given the size of the employer, would have prevented the employer from lawfully dismissing on acapability grounds. Gutted though the OP is and understandably, we should maybe take a minute to applaud the employer for what they have managed to do over a length of time. It is pretty seldom that we get employers who will go to these lengths to try to help an employee. Circumstances may have conspired to prevent the strategy from working out, but credit where it is due - they really tried. I doubt they are feeling any better about this than the OP is - I know I wouldn't in the same position.

skintandscared_2

LadyMissA wrote: »

how have you managed to stay employed by the company if you have been ill for so long? I know I would have been let go at my last job if sick for 4 weeks or more

A lot of larger companies take better care of their staff and have PHI in place for them. A friend of mine has now been away from work for over a decade and is unlikely to ever work again but our PHI policy provides 75% of salary until retirement age.

getmore4less

skintandscared wrote: »

A lot of larger companies take better care of their staff and have PHI in place for them. A friend of mine has now been away from work for over a decade and is unlikely to ever work again but our PHI policy provides 75% of salary until retirement age.

We had someone off on PHI at our company where it was an indexing policy, they were getting pay rises while everyone working had pay frozen.

LadyMissA

getmore4less wrote: »

We had someone off on PHI at our company where it was an indexing policy, they were getting pay rises while everyone working had pay frozen.

what is PHI?

Jarndyce

LadyMissA wrote: »

what is PHI?

Private health insurance. Kicks in when employees have been off sick for a while if certain criteria are met. Its an alternative to employers paying occupational sick pay I guess.

getmore4less

Jarndyce wrote: »

Private health insurance. Kicks in when employees have been off sick for a while if certain criteria are met. Its an alternative to employers paying occupational sick pay I guess.

Permanent health insurance.
Similar to individual critical illness cover.

Yo provide income if unable to work, companies can use this as benifit beyond there sick pay policies.


private HI is used for medical care.

LadyMissA

getmore4less wrote: »

Permanent health insurance.
Similar to individual critical illness cover.

Yo provide income if unable to work, companies can use this as benifit beyond there sick pay policies.


private HI is used for medical care.

Oh ok I never got paid