Civil service recruitment complaint

branston12

Hello

I have recently received a formal offer with the civil service for an AO position after spending 7 months in the recruitment process since interview. I recently passed the pre-employment checks and received a formal offer.

In the job advert, description and in all recent communication including email headers the job was advertised in my city but now since receiving the formal offer it has been changed to another city which is an hour away. After bringing this up with them they mention that the recruitment campaign was for the two cities and they have filled up all the vacancies in my chosen city. They can only put me in the reserve list for my chosen city and that 'they are unable to say how long this position may become available'.

I cannot see how they can get away with something like this and feel pretty hard done by. It explicitly mentioned in the advert that the job was in my location. After waiting this long for them to pull the rug under my feet in this way I was wondering if I had suitable grounds for a complaint.

Will they look kindly upon this? Should I accept the offer and then make a complaint or do I start now and see what happens. Is this a futile exercise?


Thank you

bigisi

What do you hope to achieve by making a complaint? They're not going to magic up a job in your city if they don't need anyone else. A complaint my just see you being overlooked in future if you mark yourself as a trouble causer.

Exodi

I think bigisi says it best, they're not going to sack the guy they've just employed to employ you.

It's also pretty brave to make a complaint against an employer before you've even started.

An hour commute isn't the end of the world (granted this depends on the salary) and you could use this as a point of negotation at your next salary review.

comeandgo

Is an hour journey really a no no for you? Could you take the job and ask for the first transfer to your chosen city?
To complain so early in your civil service career will mean it's a very short lived career.

[Deleted User]

People travel a lot more than an hour for jobs they really want or love. You only have two real options, accept the role or refuse and ask to be added to the reserve list for the other location, but of course they wont be able to give you a timescale, they are not physic.

I don't think a complaint will get you anywhere apart from maybe an acknowledgement of what you say, it wont however change anything.

Only you can decide what to do next.

ohreally

Don't put yourself on their radar for being hard work.

branston12

I would like to thank you all for your advice.



I think you are all right and my only option now is to accept the offer and try and get a transfer. My concern is that an AO salary isn't great and commuting would eat a large chunk of that leaving me a lot better off working minimum wage somewhere else whilst not losing 2 hours of my day.



But what hits hard is that I have waited so long to get to this stage and it feels very unfair for them to do this now but that's life I guess.

BoGoF

Why do you feel hard done by? You obviously didn't impress enough to get an offer for your chosen location but they offered you somewhere else.

Nobody owes you anything here.

mije1983

branston12 wrote: »

My concern is that an AO salary isn't great and commuting would eat a large chunk of that leaving me a lot better off working minimum wage somewhere else whilst not losing 2 hours of my day.

And is the progression in a 'minimum wage' role comparable to the job you have been offered?

Sometimes you need to look beyond the here and now and as said, an hour commute is not really excessive if you want and enjoy the work. Especially if this is the first rung for a career you want.

shortcrust

If you really can’t work in the other city then turn them down, express polite disappointment and ask if there is any way you could be kept on a reserve list or be considered if anything else comes up. In the places I used to work AO grade staff often didn’t hang around for long. Things may change pretty quickly in some departments in the coming months and extra staff might well be needed ASAP.

I know it’s not great, but at least there’s the chance of something positive coming from it. I can’t honestly see any positives to you from complaining. You might get an apology for the ‘confusion’ but I bet you’d rule out getting a job from them in the future.

Brynsam

branston12 wrote: »

But what hits hard is that I have waited so long to get to this stage and it feels very unfair for them to do this now but that's life I guess.

It's miserable to have waited so long only to have the goalposts moved at the 11th hour - but try if you can not to let that colour your views of what might be an excellent career move (certainly an excellent pension!). There's a pretty high turnover in the Civil Service, with plenty of opportunities for moving/secondments, so taking the job with good grace and seeing how things go might be your best bet.