Redundancy appeal meeting - what to expect?

MCo28 · 1 December 2019 at 5:57PM

Can anyone tell me what to expect at my redundancy appeal meeting? I can’t find much online and ACAS don’t seem to give much help, just keep saying they need to be impartial (maybe I need to call and speak to a different advisor?) and that they can help with early reconciliation should I need to take that route. Can’t even get them to confirm if the reason is fair or unfair so just going off their website and the CAB info.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

This is the reason I was given for my redundancy:
The reason for the redundancy is due to BUSINESS NAME being demerged from BUSINESS NAME. The business is now a standalone limited business and as such, it needs to run completely separately from BUSINESS NAME which it was not capable of under the staff structure and roles that were in place. This combined with the requirement for the business to run smoothly under a new management structure as the existing structure was not working efficiently led to the at risk of redundancy consultations. The outcome of the consultation was that no new role or structure that was considered/discussed was suitable for the existing employees and so redundancy was the only available outcome.

We were verbally told that it was due to needing two people in 5 days a week or 1 person 5 days a week, and no new role was spoken of.

Blatchford · 1 December 2019 at 7:14PM

There is no possible answer. How an individual employer conducts a meeting, provided it is "fair" (for what that is worth) is up too them. I'd expect you to have an opportunity to present your argument as to why you think it is unfair, and what your alternative proposals are.

ACAS are not allowed to give you legal advice, so they will not ever tell you what their opinion is. In fact, if one of their advisors does, that is the time to get a better one!

FWIIW, that appears to be a valid business need (looking at your previous thread too). They are not arguing that they will not accept a part-time worker, but that they require a particular approach for business efficiency, and that is something you could not offer. There being no suitable alternative, they made you redundant. Your focus appears to be that you wish to work the hours that suit you (however reasonable your reason for that is), but theirs is that the arrangement doesn't provide effective handover, and they were willing to continue to offer part-time arrangements but not on the terms you wanted. Unless you can prove that they would not have accepted any part-time arrangements, which appears to not be possible, based on what you've said I think it unlikely a tribunal would support your argument. You might get an economic settlement offer to avoid a tribunal, but I wouldn't expect much. And at that stage what is more important than money is a good reference, because past employers have a lot of power in references.

Redundancy appeal meeting - what to expect?

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