Redundancy meeting tomorrow

kittykatneedscash

I have been in full time employment with my current employer for 8 years. I am currently furloughed from work along with the rest of the workforce. Last week I received a letter asking me to go to a consultation meeting as my role is at risk of redundancy. When I got there I had a very informal chat with the business owner / director 5 minutes didn’t even sit down. I asked if they could leave me on furlough for the time being as if not costing the business anything directly and being made unemployed at the current time I would struggle to find alternative employment straightaway. They haven’t reopened or started manufacturing again yet so the rest of the workforce are still on furlough. He agreed to leave things are for the time being which was a relief until I received a text on Monday asking me to go back in tomorrow for another meeting ‘to discuss further our meeting of last week’ I am now worried that they have changed their mind and decided to make me redundant now rather than wait.
I’m not in a trade union and don’t know much about them is it too late to join something now?  Any advise on preparing for tomorrow?

KatrinaWaves

A trade union is highly unlikely to help you as a single person who is not in a union. If you were all at risk and all joined up thenMAYBE at a push, but 99% I’d say you’re out of luck with a union. You join and pay so they help you with problems, you can’t just sign up once the problem has started.

It may be that they are soon to reopen as manufacturing is getting going again, so preparing you give you notice so they don’t have to pay you anymore out of their own pocket. Unfortunate but that’s redundancy. 

lincroft1710

As long as they follow the rules regarding redundancy situations, they do not necessarily have to wait to start  to make people redundant

TELLIT01

If a company is in a financial situation where redundancies are necessary they don't really have the luxury of allowing people to stay in employment with they until such time as it's convenient for staff to leave.  That said, it's possible that the meeting is to provide more detail about how long they can keep you on for.

sharpe106

It is too late to join a trade union now. Why would they spend money and effort fighting for your job when the only reason you joined was because your job was at risk. Otherwise nobody would join a union until they were needed.

 Although the government claim that the furlough does not companies anything that is not quite true, you still maintain all your other benefits of being employed, i.e. holiday pay and somebody has to process the forms so not fully free.

 If they are going to make you redundant now rather than wait as long as they follow the process properly there is not a lot else you can do.