Redundancy and I think my Employer has dropped a clanger...

SomeGuyina_car

I have been made redundant from my job as a Maintenance Manager because the business needs to cut costs in the current market downturn. I have had my consultation and stated that I would be willing to take a drop in salary and relinquish the 'Manager' role, if it meant saving my job and helping the company out. I  was let go despite this. As well as me, the whole Maintenace department has gone. I have now been informed that somebody else in the Company has been given my role and will co-ordinate maintenance issue, liaise with Contractors etc, on less pay than I was on. Whilst I am aware Companies can do this to cost cut, I am also aware that they MUST offer that to me as an alternative to redundancy first. Can anybody confirm that this is the case and more importantly, could I possibly have a case for unfair dismissal based on the above.
Thank you

Hoenir

Was the other person also in the redundancy pool ?   

Alderbank

So the whole Maintenance department has gone, including the Maintenance Manager.

Maintenance is still needed of course and is now carried out in a different way, using external contractors instead. Those contracts are placed by the Property Services Contracts Co-ordinator or similar job title. 

The employer might consider that to be a substantially different role from the one you previously held.

Grumpy_chap

SomeGuyina_car said:

I have been made redundant from my job as a Maintenance Manager because the business needs to cut costs in the current market downturn. I have had my consultation and stated that I would be willing to take a drop in salary and relinquish the 'Manager' role, if it meant saving my job and helping the company out. I  was let go despite this. As well as me, the whole Maintenace department has gone. I have now been informed that somebody else in the Company has been given my role and will co-ordinate maintenance issue, liaise with Contractors etc, on less pay than I was on. Whilst I am aware Companies can do this to cost cut, I am also aware that they MUST offer that to me as an alternative to redundancy first. Can anybody confirm that this is the case and more importantly, could I possibly have a case for unfair dismissal based on the above.
Thank you

It is quite possible that the somebody else that now co-ordinates maintenance is doing that in addition to whatever role they performed previously.

I understand emotions can be raw at times like this and the uncertainty until you secure your next (new) employment is not helpful but, in the long term, you may be better having been made redundant than staying in the lower-grade role.
Did you receive a redundancy settlement?
Had you stayed in the lower-grade role, would you really have just been using that as a support net until you could find a new job elsewhere?

Sometimes, it is just time to move on and focus on the future as the past is done.
In the mean-time, are you receiving all benefits that you are entitled to?  Some are not means tested, for example nJSA.

Undervalued

SomeGuyina_car said:

I have been made redundant from my job as a Maintenance Manager because the business needs to cut costs in the current market downturn. I have had my consultation and stated that I would be willing to take a drop in salary and relinquish the 'Manager' role, if it meant saving my job and helping the company out. I  was let go despite this. As well as me, the whole Maintenace department has gone. I have now been informed that somebody else in the Company has been given my role and will co-ordinate maintenance issue, liaise with Contractors etc, on less pay than I was on. Whilst I am aware Companies can do this to cost cut, I am also aware that they MUST offer that to me as an alternative to redundancy first. Can anybody confirm that this is the case and more importantly, could I possibly have a case for unfair dismissal based on the above.
Thank you

I am not sure you are correct in the circumstance you describe.

It is not uncommon to close in house departments (such as maintenance) and to outsource the work that used to be done by employed staff. Whether it is a good idea or not is another matter but it is a decision the company is free to take. It could be argued that buying in such services as economically as possible is a completely different skill set to either carrying out the work or supervising employed staff. Arguably if the work was previously being done to the required standard and / or cost effective they would have been unlikely to close the department. I wouldn't surprise me in such circumstances that somebody from completely outside of the old maintenance department was chosen.

EnPointe

Undervalued said:

SomeGuyina_car said:

I have been made redundant from my job as a Maintenance Manager because the business needs to cut costs in the current market downturn. I have had my consultation and stated that I would be willing to take a drop in salary and relinquish the 'Manager' role, if it meant saving my job and helping the company out. I  was let go despite this. As well as me, the whole Maintenace department has gone. I have now been informed that somebody else in the Company has been given my role and will co-ordinate maintenance issue, liaise with Contractors etc, on less pay than I was on. Whilst I am aware Companies can do this to cost cut, I am also aware that they MUST offer that to me as an alternative to redundancy first. Can anybody confirm that this is the case and more importantly, could I possibly have a case for unfair dismissal based on the above.
Thank you

I am not sure you are correct in the circumstance you describe.

It is not uncommon to close in house departments (such as maintenance) and to outsource the work that used to be done by employed staff. Whether it is a good idea or not is another matter but it is a decision the company is free to take. It could be argued that buying in such services as economically as possible is a completely different skill set to either carrying out the work or supervising employed staff. Arguably if the work was previously being done to the required standard and / or cost effective they would have been unlikely to close the department. I wouldn't surprise me in such circumstances that somebody from completely outside of the old maintenance department was chosen.

indeed  it suggests that the person who now undertakes that management function is  contract manager  not a manager of peopel and services