Selection Pool for redundancies

westbridgfordguy · 26 March 2018 at 10:49PM

Just over a year ago I worked for a large multinational manufacturer on a trading estate that had 2 discrete manufacturing sites, call it Site A and Site B. I was the Manufacturing Manager for Site B and there were 2 Manufacturing Managers for Site A as this was double the size. Site A made one product and sold it to external customers as well as Site B where we converted it into another product and then sold it to another customer.

The whole business including Site A and B was taken over by another organisation whom decided that the operation on my site was no longer part of their plans so the whole of Site B was to be closed down leaving all staff including myself in a redundancy situation.

During the consultation period I asked if my 2 peers with the same job title but working in Site A would be included in the redundancy pool but was told that they would not as it was a different site as my job title was Manufacturing Manager Site A and theirs was Manufacturing Manager Site B.

Given the above I was made redundant. I still have a nagging issue with the above as I would have been viewed favourably against at least one of my peers as I had better attendance levels as well as skills and experience but was not allowed to be considered as the company did not include them in the same pool, something I didn't pursue at the time very vigorously.

Any thoughts on the above?

getmore4less · 27 March 2018 at 11:38AM

Just over a year ago

Bit late 3 month less a day to take any action at an ET.

Best in these situation to put a business case together as part of consultation that shows you are the best person to keep in the business.

westbridgfordguy · 27 March 2018 at 1:40PM

getmore4less wrote: »

Bit late 3 month less a day to take any action at an ET.

Best in these situation to put a business case together as part of consultation that shows you are the best person to keep in the business.

I had less than 2 years service so don't think I would have been able to take this to an Employment Tribunal, I was really just enquiring to get independent parties observations on the matter.

Comms69 · 27 March 2018 at 1:48PM

westbridgfordguy wrote: »

I had less than 2 years service so don't think I would have been able to take this to an Employment Tribunal, I was really just enquiring to get independent parties observations on the matter.

In terms of what?

Morally? - irrelevant, my morals and your morals are different
Legally? - you had no rights

lincroft1710 · 27 March 2018 at 4:10PM

westbridgfordguy wrote: »

I had less than 2 years service so don't think I would have been able to take this to an Employment Tribunal, I was really just enquiring to get independent parties observations on the matter.

The answer lies in the first 7 words of the quote.

There was no need for any redundancy process, the company could have just terminated your employment.

getmore4less · 27 March 2018 at 4:46PM

lincroft1710 wrote: »

The answer lies in the first 7 words of the quote.

There was no need for any redundancy process, the company could have just terminated your employment.

They could under statutory provisions but most big companies have contractual process and procedures once they use those there is room for claims even under 2 years.

There are usually grievance processes to complement the termination processes which need to be used first.

As said best option is to make a case for why you are the best person to keep so a company wants you, rather than relying on process and procedures which eventually don't help.

TBagpuss · 10 April 2018 at 4:14PM

there is no single correct way to define a redundancy pool, the employer has to be able to show tat the criteria they used to define the pools were reasonable

Whether it was reasonable to exclude the people from the other site from the pool would depend on a number of factors, including how close together the two sites were, and also what your contracts said. If the two sites were on the same trading estate then I think its likely that they would have found it difficult to defend excluding the other mangers on the basis that it was a different site, but there may well have been other reasons why they could reasonable exclude them from the 'pool'.

However, given the time which has passed, and your short period of employment, it's an academic point anyway.

ReadingTim · 10 April 2018 at 4:32PM

If there was a redundancy pool, it sounds like the size of the exercise would have entailed the election of employee reps to participate/oversee the process. Your point should have been taken up by your rep at the time - was it? I'm guessing not, given you admit you didn't pursue it very vigorously at the time, so doubt your changes now, even if you'd been there over 2 years and were eligible to make a claim in the first place.

Selection Pool for redundancies

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