Potential Redundancy Advice Please 11 February 2017 at 5:05PM edited 11 February 2017 at 5:20PM in Redundancy & redundancy planning 3 replies 3.2K views

SouthUKMan

Hi. I work for a large and generally well respected UK based corporate employer that has recently told staff it needs to make savings through redundancy equivalent to ten percent of the payroll by early 2019. Broadly speaking, at least two thirds of the 40 or so staff in my particular branch are employed with the exact same job title and share an interchangeable skill set, albeit we all have 'specialist' areas that we are allocated to.

It just so happens that the specialist part of the business that I currently work in is widely considered a bit of a luxury and realistically it would be among the first to be restructured or closed down in the event of making financial savings.

Bearing in mind that most of us employees share the same job title and have similar skill sets (to the point that in the event of holiday or sickness cover being required, we mostly fill in behind one another), can the employer let me go simply because my 'part' of the business is no longer considered viable, when the reality is that I (along with two thirds of my colleagues) have the skills to work in most of the other roles within the branch?

Thanks

lincroft1710

Have a read of this

https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/overview

paddyandstumpy

I've just gone through aa redundancy, our HR told us the roles were being made redundant, and we had to reapply for similar roles in the business.

Sounds like something similar will potentially happen, the company will offer say 5 roles where there were 10 before, and make all 10 apply. 5 will get them, 5 will get made redundant.

Good luck and I hope things work out the way you want them.

mgdavid

If two thirds of the 40 are same title and skills, that's 26 of you.
10 percent saving is 3 so on the face of it they could ask all 26 to apply for 23 jobs.
HOWEVER if they really are looking to make these savings over a 2 year period is it not highly likely that 3 people will leave in that time through natural wastage (retirement, illness, better job etc etc) ?
Maybe absolutely nothing to worry about.