Redundancy and contractors doing the same role

Mrsw44

I have been told that I will be made redundant in the next couple of months. The company has several contractors who are paid on a day rate doing exactly the same job as me. Can I be made redundant from my permanent post whilst the company employs temporary workers to do the same role?

Ewarwoowar2

Depends if there's less need for workers of a particular kind.

If they're replacing permanent employees with contractors then technically it may not be a redundancy situation. It could be dismissal for some other substantial reason. The only difference between the two is that you wouldn't be entitled to a redundancy payment in the latter situation.

mrsw1968

Thanks for your reply. there is s restructure underway and i have been selected for redundancy. however, the company plans to keep the contractors on to do the same role as i have been doing for the past two years. i am employed by the local authority. i found out today that my 2 other colleagues who do the same work as i was were slotted into 2 other roles whilst i was not, thus giving them more opportunity to remain employed. Surely this is unfair treatment? how can my job be made redundant if the company plan to keep the contractors on after i leave?

Gerson2k

mrsw1968 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. there is s restructure underway and i have been selected for redundancy. however, the company plans to keep the contractors on to do the same role as i have been doing for the past two years. i am employed by the local authority. i found out today that my 2 other colleagues who do the same work as i was were slotted into 2 other roles whilst i was not, thus giving them more opportunity to remain employed. Surely this is unfair treatment? how can my job be made redundant if the company plan to keep the contractors on after i leave?

Sorry to hear of your situation.

Has your employer issued you with a Section 188 notice at all? This usually kicks off the formal consultation process.

As far as I know your employers can only argue that the post is no longer required and not the person. Did your two colleagues hold the same post / job title as you - if the case then all three people should have been in the risk pool and a formal re-selection process carried out.

From my own experience contractors are usually not considered part of the structure and are conveniently left out of the equation during any restructure.

Also are you in a union or raised you concern with a rep?

InsideInsurance

To the best of my knowledge, because consultants/ contractors are not employees then they are totally separate and irrelevant to the consideration of redundancy.

If you think that contractors have a better life and higher pay then you could always take this opportunity and switch to the dark side..... we have cookies

warmhands.coldheart

Not 100% sure but 95% sure if they are doing the exact same type of job as you I think they would have to let contractors go first before making a full time staff member doing the same role redundant. As said before, it's not a staff person that becomes redundant, it's the job role and if they are all the same type of role, contractors/temps go first! Also if you are part of a wider team and everyone is doing the same job, everyone has to be put at risk of redundancy and a selection criteria drawn up. they can't just pick a person! (though in theory they can set a criteria as long as it's "fair" to specifically get rid of certain people)
i.e if 40 sales people doing exactly the same sales job for the same department, all 40 should be put at risk and a selection criteria drawn up to decide who goes. this couldbe based on performance, levels of education, previous appraisals, etc, etc.

InsideInsurance

But a contractor doesnt do a role/ job etc (these are all employee terms), they provide a service. When I am at a clients I am still the MD of my company and that is my role/ job no matter what services I am providing to my client.

warmhands.coldheart

InsideInsurance wrote: »

But a contractor doesnt do a role/ job etc (these are all employee terms), they provide a service. When I am at a clients I am still the MD of my company and that is my role/ job no matter what services I am providing to my client.

Yes but they bring you in to do a job which they don't have the resources to do I'd assume.

Not sure of your job but if you are an electrician being contracted into a company to do some work and they have 5 other full time employed electricians doing the same type of work. 8 months down the line if work falls off, they can't make a full time employee redundant but still keep on a contractor doing the same job. It's illegal!

InsideInsurance

Of cause I'd love to think I am a unique and beautiful snowflake and that I bring a unique skill set to my clients which is why they pay me the day rate I demand but no, I fulfill a service for which there are other contractors also providing a very similar service and likewise a number of permanent employees doing it as a job.

Having a quick chat with an employment guru who's opinion I trust they do concur that for the sakes of down sizing there is no requirement for contractors to be let go before the consideration of redundancy and of cause contractors are not subject to redundancy as they arent employees.

Mrsw44

How can the company insist that the job is redundant when they have more than enough work for the permanent
staff and have to bring in contractors to carry out exactly the same duties?

Gerson2k

Mrsw44 wrote: »

How can the company insist that the job is redundant when they have more than enough work for the permanent
staff and have to bring in contractors to carry out exactly the same duties?

Aside from being told that your post is no long in the new structure, have you seen what the new structure looks like? Could it be the case that there is more than enough work at this moment in time to require temp staff, but once the restructure taken place the work will no longer be a function of your department. i.e your line of work is at risk from centralisation, computerisation or collabaration that you local authority has entered in to with neighbouring authorities / government agencies?

The above should have been covered during the consultation process and you should have been informed of the rationale for the proposed redundancies.