Redundancy Queries - Forced to apply for new role

01.matthew

Hi,

I have the following situation at work, and I am not sure if it is fully legal. Firstly I should state the company policy is to comply with ACAS if that helps at all.

So the situation is as follows:


Current team of Business Analysts (of which I am one)
Current team of Change Analysts (in different department) - a role junior to the Business Analysts


Restructure takes place, in which the Business Analysts are moved into the same department as the Change Analysts. We are then advised:

• Current BA role is "at risk" - i.e. it will no longer be in the structure
• Current Change Analyst role is "at risk" as well
• A new Change Analyst role has been created, which has less positions than the combined teams
• Apparently the new role is a 90% fit for the existing Change Analysts, so they don't have to apply are automatically given a job
• It is also (somehow) at 70-80% fit for the Business Analyst job, and as such we MUST apply for it via an assessment or hand in our resignation
• We may not take voluntary redundancy
• We may not take early retirement
• Should someone wish to to not apply (and thus have to hand in their resignation), the Director in charge has advised he will force us to work our full notice as it "inconveniences" him and he may have to source replacements

Considering my full notice is 3 months it is really annoying. The offered role is generally seen as junior to the Business Analyst role, and some may choose to leave. However at the moment they are saying we have no choice but to apply.

My main questions are:

Are they correct in forcing us to apply for the new role?
Is there anything that can be done in regards to the notice period considering we are officially "under risk", as it is making it difficult to seek some employment with a three month notice period.


Would really appreciate any advice.

Cheers

Matt

01.matthew

I should also note I have not been with the company long enough to benefit from any redundancy pay, so that is not an issue.

mgdavid

my take after a quick read is that you cannot be asked or forced to resign. The company is restructuring, your current role is disappearing and some similar roles are being created which you may apply for. It's the (current) role that is redundant, and if you don't want to apply for an alternative role the company applies the redundancy process to you. This probably means giving you notice of the role change and the date of redundancy which I expect will coincidentally be the same as the notice period they wish you to work (so that they have time to recruit a replacement in the new role).
One bit I don't understand; you say you haven't been there long enough for redundancy pay yet imply you've been there long enough to have to give 3 months' notice, is the latter in your contract as applying from day 1?
If that is the case then I'd be job hunting now, and when you get an offer and have accepted, go tell them when you are going to leave - they have little or no sanction over you going when you want in reality.

getmore4less

They are trying to trick people.

Say when they put you on notice of redundancy you will consider if anything offered is a suitable alternative.

They need to go through the selection process and then this selected can decide if it is suitable alternative.

By asking people to apply they bypass the redundancy process and once you apply it is too late to turn any offer down and get redundancy payments

asajj

@mgdavid - If you are in a senior role, your notice period can be long - not related to your time in the company.

There is nothing you can do for your notice period unless you agree with your boss. I have been in the same position and left early as my company allowed me to do so. Otherwise no. However many companies are used to long notice periods when it comes to redundancy therefore I don't think it would be the major issue. (Again been there before).

As a side note, from what I see , they can't force you to apply to a new role. Especially if it is more junior than your current one.