Confusing case redundancy in dept when on fixed term contract

RedTomato

Trying to help a family member out with this.

She has worked around ten years for an NHS employer. She was employed, let's say on Band 1, she is on a fixed term training contract this year at Band 2, it finishes end March, at which time she can apply for a Band 3 job as she will be qualified for it.

However, the area she works for has announced cuts to half its workforce with the consultation process ending mid-December, followed by people interviewing for the jobs that are left and redeployment for those who are not successful Feb - April.

She has been told that as she is not in a Band 3 job at the moment she cannot interview for one as she is not doing that job now even though she should be qualified for it by March. The Band 3 jobs are ringfenced for those doing those jobs now as they are being cut by half. Which seems fair enough, but obviously when she qualifies a month later there will be no job for her to apply to as they will have just cut 50% of them. There will be no more training level Band 2 contracts either.

So she is worried that she will be forced to go back down to the Band 1 job, even though they've spent a year training her to a more advanced skill set. She says they were really unclear about explaining what happens when the fixed term contract ends, if she will be offered redeployment or they will just say that they have not obligation to her as the workplace is now smaller and her employment is terminated.

She has spoken to the Union rep who says she needs legal advice and she has a form to fill in to ask for that.

Anyone out there though who can think of questions she should ask or anything she needs to do now?

There's another complication in that the HR there are so inefficient that she has not actually got a paper contract with the terms and conditions of the training contract that she is doing but they have just let her get on with it. She's still on Band 1 with payroll too but as the pay at the top of Band 1 where she was is similar to the pay at the bottom of Band 2 she has not chased it up.

sangie595

Not chasing it up was a mistake - any redundancy payment is based on her pay! She needs to start chasing, and she should be owed back pay.

If she has ten year continuous employment, then she had the same rights fyi redeployment as anyone else in the same position. She cannot be treated less favorably than any other employee. But that doesn't mean they have to create a job for her - if there is no alternative employment, like any other employee, she would be redundant. She should be treated, in all regards, as any other employee. If she is not, that is unlawful.

The complication is in determining where she should be pooled for alternative employment. My logic says band 2. But the NHS has its own way of doing things and its own rule book, so you'd need someone familiar with that to answer that aspect.

RedTomato

Thank you for the answer. The NHS certainly does have its own way of doing things!

The Step 2 job really only exists in her discipline as a training post so there likely will be no other Step 2 posts to apply for in the Trust, Step 3 possibly in other department and certainly within the region (which is considered the redeployment area I understand), Step 1 there are always vacancies but having spent a year training to be Step 3 it would be demoralising to have to go back to Step 1. She is in a minority discipline that they are cutting back on so it's not like being a nurse where there are always jobs.

sangie595

Being out of work is even more demoralising. At least in work she has a foot in the door. And she had the opportunity to look elsewhere if she wishes.