Redundancy

13lauren

Hi there,
I have today been told I have been selected to be made redundant and am meant to have a meeting next week to discuss. I was put on furlough and was told that after 3 weeks i would be back and other member of staff would be furloughed in order to give people a break as we have had an increase in work and have all been over worked. However they never sent me back to work and continued my furlough. I am the Fulfilment Manager and I have an assistant Manager. I have just found out that the assistant manager (who was not furloughed but was meant to be after me) has now become the fulfilment Manager. So essentially has taken my job while i was furloughed and mow i am being made redundant. Is this a legal redundancy? Surely as a manager who has several staff under me that i should not be made redundant and someone else take my place while I’m gone. 

[Deleted User]

From the information that has been given it is not legal as a technically a person is not made redundant, but a position is. So in your case the position of "Fulfilment manger" has been made redundant, which means you no longer have a job. Your assistant could be kept on, as long as they are not put directly into your role, it could have different responsibilities in which case it would be allowed. You being manager and having several staff under you is irrelevant. 

If the assistant is doing a different role, you may find for example that your role has been split, with different responsibilities given to different people (eg reporting may be given to someone else, team management to someone else etc.) then it is legal. Without knowing the ins ans outs of both roles it is hard to tell either way. There are some complications around how long you have been employed there, your contract etc. as well. 

It may be worth talking to Citizen's Advice if you have been there more than two years and believe the person is doing the same job that you were, but without much more information most people on here probably can not help a great deal. 

sharpe106

As above if the have literally replaced you then no you could claim it was unfair, but if the work has been split up over several and the person now currently doing your job is only doing part of it then they can claim that is why. If they have decided that one of you need to go and have chosen you because they are cheaper then again it is unfair, as it is the job not the job holder. So you need to really find out what  the person who was your assistant is doing then that will help Citizen Advice give you better advice.