Redundancy and short term contract extension

Spiderroo

My situation is quite complicated but hoping someone on here may be able to help me. I’ve contacted my union repeatedly for a week to try and get advice with no response. 

I work in the nhs and have five years continuous service. I’ve been employed by my current NHS organisation for just over a year but I’m on a fixed term contract which expires at the end of March, meaning I’ve been told I’m at risk of redundancy. 

I know I sound naive but I didn’t expect this. I’ve done fixed term contracts for four years and before COVID I used to get contacted all the time to apply for jobs. There’s a lot less opportunities though and more candidates from outside the sector applying. I’m currently on secondment to the government but I applied for a slightly different version of my job, interviewing in January. I really struggled in the interview as there was a set presentation task and they didn’t tell candidates it had a very limited time frame. I started, didn’t finish in the time and had a panic attack. I have anxiety and have been struggling with lockdown, starting a new job which is very full on (LONG hours) and moving house a few weeks before the interview. The role went to an external candidate with significantly more experience than me. 

I was initially told I wasn’t redundant as this new role existed but I think because they’d changed the JD, etc HR decided I am in fact redundant. 

I was told three weeks ago that I am at risk of redundancy and also told by my secondment they’d like to employ me for 6 months. There are no jobs coming up in the NHS in my field (a support role) and I was told initially that they would pay my redundancy if I rejected the suitable alternative employment they had to offer and not to worry. I never thought I’d be redundant from the nhs but I enjoy my secondment and figured they could employ me directly until things get better and I can return to the NHS. 

They’ve now invited me for a meeting next week and said my secondment has suggested a 2-3 month contract extension. No one at my secondment has spoken to me about this so I was very surprised. 

I’m also very worried - if I don’t find another job I’ll be at risk of redundancy again in as little as 5 weeks. This last few months has taken it out of me and I feel like my nerves are shredded. I really don’t want to spend months more repeatedly worrying about being made redundant. But I don’t know what my rights are in this situation, if any? Do we just keep doing a few months extension until I run out of luck for extensions or can I say this doesn’t work for me and still receive redundancy? Has anyone got advice for how to get a Union to actually respond and provide advice & representation for this meeting? Is it stupid to take the redundancy and take my chances? 

I just want it all to stop and I feel pushed to my limits. I’ve always worked hard and been successful in my career but I’ve gone above and beyond during COVID because I know it’s so important things get done. I feel chewed up and spat out, I can’t sleep and I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about what my future may bring. I’m not sure my mental health can take much more. 

Thrugelmir

Hopefully further opportunities will open up for you as the NHS returns to a more normal settled status. Being a fixed term contractor unfortunately carries the potential risk of redundancy.