Need a little advice

[disasterpending]

Hi, I am a mother of a beautifully, and amazing loud! almost one year old and on Monday the restaurant I work for went into liquidation. I need a little advice on this please. To give you the background; I am in Northern Ireland. I had worked for this company as a general manager for 5 years then I went on Maternity, the weekend before i was due to return I was offered a job at the head office as a business development manager. I took this job thinking it would be better suited to my new lifestyle. I hated the job as it turned out. Also when i was offered this job it was to see if i liked it on the understanding i could return to being a gm at the lst place i worked if it didnt work out. About 3 months in I see a advert for the job below my old one, meaning that my job had been given to the acting the acting gm. at the exact same time an opportunity came up to be a restaurant manager in a company which the company i worked for owned. I took that job, despite the pay cut as i thought it would be better suited again.so the restaurant was closed down on Monday and the company have offered me a full time waiting job in one of their branches. the issue i have with this is that the outlet is one they are running for an adminstrator so it could go at any time. I believe i have the right to a reasonable job offer from the company. So my question is :- do I have a case for this not being a reasonable job replacement? Sorry this was long winded and i dare say a little dull but i really need help. the money i earn pays our rent and child minding and im afraid that we are going to be in big financial trouble. i dont mind having a waiting job but i know that the company are cutting down fulltime hours and the reality is that i need to work at least 50hrs a week at min. wage to keep our heads above water. The best way i can see is if they pay me redundancy and i look for another job. anyone have any advice?

[flowery]

My advice is based on employment law in Great Britain. Most of it is the same or very similar, but I would suggest you check locally as there are some differences.

In Great Britain if your role is redundant you are entitled to a suitable alternative role if there is one available, or to redundancy pay assuming you have more than 2 years service. A fair and reasonable procedure must also be followed. In NI the basic statutory 3 step procedure is I believe still in place.

The fact that the job you're being offered is in an outlet being run for an administrator doesn't make it unsuitable. What would make it unsuitable is a change to pay, hours, status, or tasks responsibilities not being similar or suitable for you.

Assuming this waiting staff job is lower paid and of lower status, that is your basis for saying that you are not being offered a suitable alternative.

Are you aware of any existing suitable alternatives? Are you being given access to vacancy lists etc?

[disasterpending]

Thanks for getting back to me. There are no other roles available and the waiting job is certainly lower pay and status. Can I say to them that this job is unsuitable and that I want to be paid redundancy instead or do I need to wait to be offered it?

[flowery]

They should have already said to you as part of a consultation process that your own role is redundant, and should be saying this is what we are offering you as a suitable alternative.

If they've not said that then I'd suggest you contact them saying something like "I understand my role is now redundant and you are offering me x role. I do not believe this role can be considered a "suitable alternative" to my role as it is substantially lower pay and status. On that basis I am declining the offer of x role, and in the absence of any available roles that would be a suitable alternative to my role, my employment must terminate by reason of compulsory redundancy. Please confirm details of redundancy and notice pay etc etc"

[disasterpending]

Thank you so much for your advice, I went into the consultation meeting and told them that I didn't believe the job offer was reasonable on the grounds you lead out and that I want to be made aware of what my redundancy options were. I told them that I had taken advice and I believed I was entitled. They came back to me yesterday with an offer of my statuary redundant which is all I wanted. So again, thank you for the help and the confidence to speak up for what I wanted. Now off to job hunt!