Role Moved And Given To Someone Else - Advice Needed

Hi,

First if all sorry, this has taken place over three years so to explain it is not a two minute job.

I’ve been with the company I work for around 8 years and have worked my way up to a Senior Management position. In late 2016 I was asked to move on secondment out of my leadership role in the area of the business I worked in and not a company wide transformation programme. My role would be to lead a key stream and I was told after much discussion I’d been identified as the best person to lead on this key business programme. I was reluctant to leave my existing role and team and for 6 months tried to do two jobs before realising it wasn’t feasible and formalising a full time secondment. The secondment ran for 12 months from July 17 and I recieved a letter confirming I would return to my substantive role with no risk to employement or change in terms etc.. As is so often the case however the programme I was on was then extended and is only just winding up now 3 years later however HR never formally extended my secondment beyond July 18.

So fast forward to current day and two months ago I was told by my boss that my area of the business was looking at restructuring. Part of this would see my old team being “disbanded” however a new business area had been created which effectively does what we did but business wide had been created. This new business area had roles created one of which was a role that had a different title but effectively was my role but business wide instead of for one area of the business. My boss even said when she saw it that she’d told the Director and others that they needed to be careful as I would notice this. This role was subsequently advertised and the person I assumed would get it (good relationship with new head of department) got it. I chose not to apply as I didn’t believe I should have to and was also to,d there would be “other opportunities” for me given I’d done such a good job over the last three years. Underneath this role a number of other new roles were the. created and the majority of my old team were brought together and basically told they were being transferred across.

Since then I’ve had conversations with my boss and the Director of the business area I left and it’s becoming clear they don’t really have a plan for me. I should have know, I’ve worked here long enough and have wifnsssed how they basically are incapable of forward planning and make stuff up as they go along. I have a friend who something similar happened to four years ago in that he was left without a substantive role. Since then he has basically been given “random stuff to do” based on what’s the latest “hot topic” with a series of made up job titles and no formal job description, contract etc... He’s let iit slide as he’s basically waiting for Voluntry Redundancy as he has 30 years service and the company’s terms are enhanced (4 weeks per year) but I’m younger with less service and a bit more aspiration than he has.

So, I think there are four ways this can go:

1. They offer me a new role which is no worse in terms of pay/benefits than my old substantive role or the other new role I think they should have offered me.

2. They offer me a new role on worse terms

3. They “put me at risk of redundancy” and place me in the “redeployment pool” prior to compulsory redundancy if I haven’t got a job after three months

4. They seek to agree to an enhanced voluntary redundancy with me under a compromise agreement (they do a lot of this if things get difficulty as they often do as they never do things properly)

I am hoping they are going to be fair and do right by me as I have been told I’m valued etc however I’ve seen these things unravel before due to a mixture of corporate politics and incompetence. I also know for a fact they are going to need to lose people soon due to financial pressures. They have a habit of “finding people stuf to do” without a formal job description (my fiend) however I believe anything they offer me needs to come with a full job description and contract including salary and terms etc as it’s effectively a new job offer - is this unreasonable?

I am not the sort of person to kick off however neither am I a walkover and I feel the time to draw a line in the sand may be coming and I also want to make sure I act in a way which best protects my position so to this end a few questions:

1. Does the scenerio I have described in terms of the management of my substantive role being moved but not offered to me sound like reasonable grounds for a grievance either/or if I am placed on the at risk of redundancy list or offered an inferior role?

2. If it does sound like reasonable grounds for a grievance would it follow that if I were then made compulsory redundant I would have grounds for constructive dismissal? Same question if I’m forced into a role on worse terms.
?

3. If I were able to pursue a constructive dismissal would I have to resign or could I pursue after being made redundant?

4. If they offer me another role on the same level, t&c’s but in an area I have no interest in or I believe offers less scope than my substantive five role or the one they should have offered me do I have any justification for refusing or would this then give them the excuse to say I’ve made myself redundant as they’ve offered a reasonable alternative?

5. If there is the opportunity to “negotiate” a Voluntary Redundancy what approach should I take and what is it reasonable to ask for?

Sorry it’s so long and sorry there are so many questions but I have been thinking through this and all the scenerios for a few weeks now and have reached the point where I felt I needed to share and get some objective opinions before I do anything!


Thanks!