Constructively made Redundant?? 18 August 2021 at 1:54PM in Redundancy & redundancy planning 2 replies 604 views

wmsheep

Hi there.

I was wondering if you all could give me some advice regarding a possible claim for Constructive Dismissal following my being made redundant.

So, the company I worked for has recently carried out a major re-structuring of one of it’s departments; the procedure that was to be followed is as follows:-

1) Employees were invited to apply for up to 3 positions from a list within the company.

2) Phone/Zoom interviews would be held for the first 2 positions applied for, with the 3rd position (if applied for) being decided by the results of the first 2 interviews after discussion.

So, I applied for 2 positions (the list to choose from was VERY narrow in my particular field), Senior Technician (not my job, but a possible promotion) and Technician.

Person 2 (my immediate boss) only applied for his (then current) position of Senior Technician.

So, I had my interview, and at the end I was informed that there would not be a second interview as they would take the results of the first and apply them to the 2nd position I was applying for.

I was unsuccessful in getting the position of Senior Tech, as was Person 2 in this process. I was also unsuccessful in getting my current position of Technician.

However, I have since found out that Person 2 in the process was approached and offered the position of Technician, despite having not applied for the position in the first place.

The only thing that I can think that goes against me is that I am on a final written warning for something that happened about 4 years ago, and I was told that this would only ever be used against me in the event of any disciplinary arising.

So, do I have any sort of case for Constructive Dismissal at all?

Thank you

M

lincroft1710

That is not Constructive Dismissal.


They clearly believed Person 2 was not the best choice for Senior Technician, but was a better choice for Technician than you were, so was offered the job. An employer cannot be criticised for picking the best person for the job.

Retireinten

It doesn't sound like constructive dismissal to me either, it sounds like you were interviewed and deemed unsuitable for the role so you weren't successful. 


If the company then chooses to offer someone that has demonstrated they do have the right skills and experience for that role then it is within their rights to do that.  I admit the way they are approaching the interview process is messy but it sounds like the roles are similar enough to assess competence for both during one interview process.


This is fairly standard practice when a company needs to reduce numbers of posts.  They should be looking at alternative employment opportunities for you before redundancy.