Not being offered alternative job because of sick days?

arthurfowler

Hi, my girlfriend has worked for the same company for 10 years both in the UK and abroad.

She was offered redundancy and then we found out there were fixed term contracts available in Australia at the same company - they offered this to her and she took it. Now that the fixed term contract in Australia is coming to an end, they are once again offering her redundancy.

There are other opportunities available in Australia for the same job but at a reduced 30% of her wage.

She has been told that her sick days were too high to be considered for the position in accordance with part of the company's selection criteria for the role. I didn't realise that could be taken into consideration when finding suitable alternative employment as i'm not applying for an internal position as someone who is not facing redundancy.

She holds both a british and australian passport.

The redundancy is being managed under UK law.

Does her employer not need to offer her the job in Australia (they are actively recruiting for the position) as it is an available position, even if 'overseas'?

I should add that an email was sent offering this alternative position and they could decide right up until their fixed term contract ended

jobbingmusician

I don't have an answer, I'm afraid (you could try redundancyforum.co.uk) but didn't want to abandon an orphan post.

The only thing I can think, as a non-expert on redeployment, is the following.

At present she is on a fixed term contract. Is this contract clear that previous service counts as continuous for the purposes of the contract? If not, she has no right to redundancy.

If she DOES have a right, are there other people in the same boat? I can see that the company MIGHT have a right to redeploy on the basis of any criteria they set. As an employer I'd be quite worried about using sickness because of the risk of unintentionally breaching the DDA, but setting that aside, I can't see that sickness is in itself a poor selection criterion for redeploying to a limited number of posts.....

arthurfowler

I completely understand what you are saying regarding the fixed term contract. However they have offered her redundancy when the fixed term contract is over.

The sickness being a criteria wouldn't be an issue for her but there is only one other person who is at risk right now and they were rejected as well. They have both been rejected and the company is still recruiting for those positions externally. There isn't a pool of candidates who are at risk of redundancy for them to choose from at the moment and there are still jobs being advertised for these positions.

getmore4less

Are these jobs being recruited on UK or AUS T&C's

arthurfowler

I think it's australia. Pretty sure it is actually