AIBU to be a bit pissed at my husbands work....

[stealthelf]

Hi all please tell me if I'm being UR.... and maybe give me some advice..... my husband's work is not great atm. Too many workers, not enough work etc, a neighboring region was told a week and a half ago that they were 'at risk of redundancy' the about two hours after that meeting my husband was rung personally by his boss to re-assure him that his job wasn't at risk. A few days later the redundancies were announced... 3people if that's relevant....so today my husband has been called in to be told that 'someone' who has been made redundant and is in the talent pool has expressed an interest in his position so now he is 'at risk of redundancy' and has been given less than a month's potential notice (15 years service)... I realise the inevitable but just wanted to ask is this ok? Is this ok within uk employment laws? He has a hearing coming up and I want to know we have done everything we could...

He would be at risk, or put in a pool of people at risk, if they all carried out the same job. You can't just choose to go for someone else's job, where that job isn't at risk. Sounds very dodgy to me!

Your husband needs legal advice. I'd call up an employment law solicitor and book an appointment ASAP.

Sounds very dodgy what they are doing. As others have pointed out. The role must be redundant. If someone else is interested in his job then the job is not redundant and therefore he shouldn't be made redundant.

Dodgey as fuck! They are talking bollocks! Call ACAS.

Btw, my DH found ACAS invaluable whilst going through redundancy, helpful at every stage.

If his role wasn't at risk before then this person shouldn't be allowed to raise interest in his job, unless they've realised that he should have been included in a specific pool for selection and the company has now agreed with this.

If this is simply one person deciding they want to go for someone else's job this would be bumping and isn't allowed, otherwise it would throw all redundancy processes into absolute chaos!

The only reason I could think that they could get away with it is if he'd very recently been promoted or moved into the role and the previous role holder was now the one at risk of redundancy and wanted their old job back, but even that would be dodgy territory.

He needs to ask for the redundancy policy, what selection pool he's in, what the scoring process criteria is, other job titles in his pool, job titles for remaining rolesand a timeline for the consultation.

Acas can be helpful, but I have found they often give the answers people want to hear. It can be a bit like calling NHS direct, you may get someone amazing who really understand everything, you may get someone who has just finished training and is referring to the same sheets you'd see online.

well we've joined the union :)

interesting missbattleaxe ... we don't know who has expressed interest, but one of the redundancies is someone who has been made redundant is in a slightly senior position although not in the same sector.....

This process is legal in certain cases (and actually not considering 'bumping' can mean a dismissal is unfair).

[https://russellhrconsulting.co.uk/the-hr-headmistress-blog/redundancies-transferred-redundancies-aka-bumping/ bumping]]

I don't know enough about your DH's situation to know if it fits the criteria but it may well be a valid and legal option for his company.

Pretty shit though

Oops link didn't work...

bumping

the my husbands job and the redundant job are on the same payscale and are considered equivalent by all accounts, just in slightly different sectors...

Surely what they effectively saying is they're merging the two roles and so making one redundant

well they've already announced the redundancies by email last week, and have named the 3 people from a different region who have been made redundant, so in my opinion it's not a merger of job roles, is it???

and less than two weeks ago was told that his job wasn't at risk

Yes it all sounds very dodgy. If I'm right (big if) I still don't understand how they can do this
although...playing devils advocate....Presumably they're consulting with the people affected, asking them to suggest solutions. ..

Thanks Stealth, I know the odds are against us... just don't want to go down without a fight ;)

I am in the same boat as you, OP.

All I can do is remember that DH is not the author of the story and try to make home life tolerable.

I'd rather be slamming his bosses' faces in a door.

What onlywhenyouleave posted is correct, the link posted explains it well.

They can consider it but don't have to do it, I would normally take very robust legal advice before I did it. (I work in HR)

Lol Shtoppen, my OH is a very lovely gentle man who has worked his way up the ladder by working hard, he wouldn't say boo to a goose.... just makes me want to fight his corner...

Thanks so much for you help ladies.... you are ace :)

stealth mine too. However, things at his job are untenable and today the hammer fell.

He is taking it better than I am, I think.

Is the person who has expressed an interest in your DH's role more senior to DH? If so, 'bumping' in redundancy is legal
This is the way it would work at my job, although I'm not in the UK. It provides more protection for people with seniority.

I'm so sorry Shtoppen

I think the thing i'm struggling the most with is the timescale, less than a months notice seems like no time at all to make contingency plans.... after 14 frigging years worth of service..... grrr

Onwards and upwards i suppose...

No not senior in job role... maybe more senior in experience....

I can see this is the route they will take so I will be prepared... thanks again lovely ladies :)

If I were your dh I'd be making sure I'd got as many copies as possible of any email communications, letters, phone messages, intranet pages, web pages etc of anything to do with the redundancy process, so that if anything did happen to him, he's got as much ammunition as possible.

I'd also try to get copies of things like the job description and linked in pages from the three people that have been made redundant, especially the one that you suspect might be after your dh's job, just so you can see what their skills are and how they match up to what your dh can offer.

Another avenue to look at is your insurance - do you have legal insurance included with it? Many do... They will often be able to help you - even if they can't represent you all the way, they can give you advice on the basics of what the process should be, what to look out for and so on.

I'd also ask advice on at what point you want to start to drop terms like unfair dismissal and not following the proper process into the conversation. Do it too early and they have a chance to go back and correct themselves so you might not get compensated if they were doing things wrong, do it too late and you might not make yourself safe if it is the case. I don't usually reckon on trying to make money out of situations but if you're potentially being made redundant having been told that you were safe, which must feel like a huge kick in the teeth, then I think it's fair enough.

Can your dh formally express an interest in his own job (and any others?) Particularly if he has a good solicitor, then they might be able to construct the letter to point out the farcical nature of the issue - that if his job is available for the other person then it's not a case of redundancy as the job is available - which would make the HR team think twice about giving it to a different person (even if they have to interview your dh and the other person for the single role, and enable your dh to be the best person for the job).

It does sound a crazy scary situation to be in - so keeping fingers crossed that they come to their senses and let your dh keep his job.

If someone's job is eliminated where I work, the person in the job can "bump" someone else and take their job, if that person had less seniority, and the person doing the bumping has the required qualifications. For example, I have 13 years in. If my job were eliminated, I could potentially bump someone who had, say, 10 years in, and take their job. That's our union rule.