Do I have a good unfair dismissal claim after being made redundant?

getmore4less

I think you have something here but I would emphasise the case first for process pooling and the business case that there is more work than 2 people can do as  it has not been getting done while you were off.
if you can convince them there is the work then the process issues goes away f they keep you

some key points for your appeal.

but my client work has not been picked up - and is now months in arrears which one of the other managers is asking who is going to pick up work load now im not there. 

Who was managing the managers and allowed this situation to arise? 
if the other managers don't think they can manage the work you need to get them on side.

Our role is to manager the client portfolio. We do not pick our clients, they are annually allocated evenly between the three managers (and we have an equal split as of time of the consultation).

When is that normally done?
why was another round of allocation not done his would have allowed assessment of the work loads to see how many people were needed....
can you do that yourself and show the need for more than 2(it might be 2.5).

I was told one of our large clients has greatly reduced work, which is true and we knew about it in November 2019 and is not Covid related, there are two of us managers on this client as it usually warrents that amount of work

How much suppoert does this client need now  should be part of the workload assessment.

one same level who only joined the firm under two years ago (to cover whilst I was on mat leave and ended up staying on).

So around 2 years ago there were two then you went on maternity replaced still two, then you came back now three(or 2.6 if you were 3 days).

From when you came back had the work load increased to justify a 30-50%  increase in capacity and has it increased since?
Do you think this temporary reduction is long term or will it recover quickly.

Had you gone back full time yet?

one potential issue is they think they need that 0.6 FTE reduction that' s you or they have to lose a 1.0 FTE and back fill more hours or maybe have you all go part time.

another aspect for the business is the risk levels go up a lot when you drop from 3 people to 2 people, holiday and sick are a lot harder to cover and scaling back up is not so easy something to point out.

no one has been reallocated my client list or actively working on them other than the junior team

That has not worked along with the back log is there something that can be done here to reduce the risk level and provide better cover while any of the managers are off, training up junior team members to handle some of the client workload in a way that allows the managers to concentrate on the important stuff and  


I would like to point out i am the only senior female, the only senior person who was furloughed as I had childcare issues, long length of service (longer than others),  in the whole office - only females were selected in teams for redundancy out of 200+ employees. 
I would keep this one as a back up slapping a sex discrimination case on top of the lack of process might just close the door to keeping your job.  
Could they be worried you are going to have another kid. 

katdmcdougal

@getmore4less thanks, yes I think emphasising the process pooling is my main aspect here. But ultimately, I have been made redundant and will not be returning back to the workplace (regardless of my appeal) so it is going down a compensationary route I have to tread. I am fortunately in the process of securing work elsewhere. It is less pay, but closer to my home and offers a more stable environment so for short term, we keep our house, utilities and family stable at least! (I am the main earner in our household by quite a margin).

Whilst I have been off, it has been treated almost as though I have been on leave short term, we did not expect me to be off so long initially so there was no cover apart from emergency queries for my client. I think I mentioned above, one of the other managers is indeed on my side and have been concerned no one's picked up my work alongside their own clients in the meantime.  We have a director and associate director in charge of the team who issue allocations. the last one was done in Feb 2020 and there (had) not been another one run since ( suspect they HAD to run one after now ive left a few weeks ago). Please note that neither of these people have had any say in the redundancy process and knew nothing about it until I was already notified I was at risk. They are furious!

I went back full time in December 2019, the other manager who came in when I went on maternity leave replaced both my space but also a lost associate director above us and a senior qualified position below us (since filled again Feb 2020) as at time of my maternity leave we were understaffed. When I returned (8 months later) we were still understaffed and I agreed to come back full time after a few months. So all three managers were full time, and running the same role at the time of redundancy.

getmore4less

If you have decided you don't want the job then focus on the process issue and the potential discrimination.
No point showing them they may have made a mistake and they need more people even if those responsible for workload realise that. 

Think it is time to go legal for a package. 

katdmcdougal

@getmore4less again, thank you. I agree and this is likely to be the way forward after the appeal hearing tomorrow unless the independent partner looking at it goes against the story so far by their other partner. I cant see the company backing down against itself so will seek proper legal aid after. I just wanted peoples opinion in case im missing a very valid point on why they have done it this way/actually they've got every legal right to just pick me without backup or running any selection criteria methods! 

katdmcdougal

ive just been informed, with less than 24 hours notice to my appeal hearing the partner can no longer make it, so they have sourced another partner who 1.) surely does not have enough time to review my case and notes and 2.) is actually the boss of the person who ran the redundancy consultancy. So.....not sure if thats an 'independent' review happening here. Either ways im now 100% sure the company will not back down even with the face of their redundancy selection process errors.  

gwynlas

Are you in a union? You could contact ACAS to see if there is are grounds for sexual discrimination.as it appears. I understand getting to Tribunal can be an expensive process  for people who are self funded which is why being supported by a union is beneficial . They are unlikely to back dowm or give you a reasonable settlement unless made to do so. 
You appear to be  justifiably angry  at the way in which you have been treated to date, try not to let this anger stop you moving forward. If you were the larger wage earner in the family why did you decide to be furloughed rather than your partner?, A lot of front line workers have young chilftrn but they tale all reasonable precautions.

katdmcdougal

@gwynlas no there's no union. And its not like we picked and chose about furlough - my partners job did not offer it and he physically had to still leave the house to do his job. Its not a reasonable precaution issue, its that trying to work full time all day alone with a 19 month old was incredibly hard to hold professional calls and sort issues without my hours being affected.

Barny1979

katdmcdougal said:

@gwynlas no there's no union. And its not like we picked and chose about furlough - my partners job did not offer it and he physically had to still leave the house to do his job. Its not a reasonable precaution issue, its that trying to work full time all day alone with a 19 month old was incredibly hard to hold professional calls and sort issues without my hours being affected.

Unfortunately that isn't the business's issue, they were very helpful facilitating furlough for you.

katdmcdougal

@Barny1979 yes they were, and I very much appreciated it at the time. My comment above was in response to @gwynlas on why didnt we have my partner furloughed instead of me as he is paid less than me. That wasnt a choice we could have made! 
My appeal hearing was yesterday and I believe was fairly done by the Partner who ran it. We will wait to see what the outcome letter is. She was very interested in finding out exactly what roles the other managers had (same as me) and also that part of my official duties were formally handed over to someone else during the consultation process (ie - the decision in my office had already been made to get rid of me before the official deadline). She stressed that sign off for dismissing me couldnt have happened without stringent HR and Partner checks. Unfortunately I know that this did not take place as I have expressively asked to see the selection process to arrive at myself from the Managers and they confirmed in a meeting (documented and notes taken) that no selection process took place, and the pool was just of me from day one based on having less work in the team overall and not needing the 'specified compliance manager'. To which, again, I am not. And supplied evidence (alongside another manager of the same grade and title fully supporting the evidence and job description). 

getmore4less

What if the outcome of the appeal is sorry we made a mistake start back Monday?