Constructive Dismissal?

zak1976

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help me here?
A good friend of mine has been working for a company for over 10 years now, working their way up to a level of middle managements over that period and never once received a complaint or criticism about their work or performance.

However they have found out in the last week that the company have just employed someone at a level between the director and themselves out of the blue, and from what they have told me the new persons job role is pretty much what they have been doing for the past couple of years.

My friend is extremely angry about this but they have also told me that they don't see how they can carry on working there anymore and they feel they are being forced out by the employment of this new person. It completely undermines them and everything they have been working on for the past few years.

Is this classed as constructive dismissal, if so does anyone know what they can do as I've never come across this before and they really need some help and guidance (and now they don't want to pay a solicitor because they are potentially out of work.)

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Takeaway_Addict

zak1976 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help me here?
A good friend of mine has been working for a company for over 10 years now, working their way up to a level of middle managements over that period and never once received a complaint or criticism about their work or performance.

However they have found out in the last week that the company have just employed someone at a level between the director and themselves out of the blue, and from what they have told me the new persons job role is pretty much what they have been doing for the past couple of years.

My friend is extremely angry about this but they have also told me that they don't see how they can carry on working there anymore and they feel they are being forced out by the employment of this new person. It completely undermines them and everything they have been working on for the past few years.

Is this classed as constructive dismissal, if so does anyone know what they can do as I've never come across this before and they really need some help and guidance (and now they don't want to pay a solicitor because they are potentially out of work.)

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I fail to see what the employer has done wrong?

Putting another management level in is acceptable-Maybe the director wanted some space between himself and your friend?

elsien

I'm not sure getting the hump because someone else has been brought in particularly equates to constructive dismissal.

Have they had a proper conversation with the director about how this may or may not impact on their role and any changes in how they are expected to carry out their work/levels of responsibility?

zak1976

They aren't getting the hump over it, more upset that they have brought someone in and given them the same job role to do. I personally didn't think that was allowed as it's effectively a demotion?

dktreesea

So how has your friend's role changed? Does he still have the same number of people reporting to him? Does he still report directly to the director or does he now report to the new guy? Has he lost any of his current management responsibilities and been told to hand them over to the new guy?

McKneff

If he has just found out, who has told him


What you have been told and the actual facts could be completely different.

tomtontom

zak1976 wrote: »

They aren't getting the hump over it, more upset that they have brought someone in and given them the same job role to do. I personally didn't think that was allowed as it's effectively a demotion?

It's not a demotion, just as adding another layer beneath him would not necessarily be a promotion - his role remains the same. If he finds most of his work taken away from him that would be another matter, but that does not appear to be the case (yet).

agrinnall

zak1976 wrote: »

They aren't getting the hump over it, more upset that they have brought someone in and given them the same job role to do. I personally didn't think that was allowed as it's effectively a demotion?

Of course it's allowed, if there's a sound business reason (and sometimes not even that) then pretty much anything is allowed. If your "friend" does resign then I predict that any claim for constructive dismissal would fail and could cost him as much as £1200.

zak1976

From what I can gather this new person will take over most of my friends job roles, pushing them back to being a graphic designer rather than managing new products and the direction that the company moves in with regards to these products.
I also don't think this about getting money out of anyone, they've never been that sort of person in the past. I've just never seen them so dejected, downtrodden and upset/angry before so I'm trying to support them and guide them in the right direction.
If this sort of thing is allowed then I guess that they have a choice to make between staying and handing their notice in?

sangie595

Whether or not the friend thinks it is a demotion, it isn't. They are being paid the same money to do the same job. Even if the job changed, it would actually be pretty hard to build a case that the employer has done something wrong - they are allowed to restructure their business as they wish.

Alternatively, it may soon become redundancy if your friends worst thoughts are correct - and it would still be quite lawful. They are two different jobs and if one is no longer needed, that would be redundancy.

Either your friend is over-reacting, or they are not. If the former, then this is not the time to rock the boat - if the employer thought they were the right person for this new job, they would not have brought in someone else, so your friend may have hit the ceiling of progress in this company and so needs to look elsewhere if they wish to progress.. If it is the latter, then the message is quite clear - start looking for other employment.

ohreally

Does the employer have a recruitment and selection policy, iuf so has it been breached by appointing this individual?