Redundancy 1 week after colleague returned from maternity leave

[neverhadanymarblestolose]

Been informed today that my company want to make me redundant and they have offered me a (slightly) enhanced package if I go quietly. I've got an appointment with a solicitor on Thursday, but my mind is racing and was after some advice before then.

Worked there for nearly 11 years. There was me and 2 others who worked alongside each other, doing same type of role as each other but for different areas of the business. One of the other 2 went on maternity leave in December 2016 and they returned on 9th January, worked for 4 days then went off sick and then came back in today. So she'd not really been given any responsibility or told what she would be doing.

When she was off, the three roles were merged into two that me and my other colleague have done for the past 13 months.

I was told today in a meeting with my head of department, that the company is stream lining and that there isn't enough work for the three of us, so they are offering me redundancy. If I don't accept it, they said the three of us will have competency testing to determine who to make redundant.

My AIBU is, is this legal? My returning colleague effectively being given my job? It's not that any part of my role is changing, it's just there is now 3 people in a team and they only have work for 2.

Thanks for reading. It's been a pretty shit day and my head is spinning.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. I'll definitely make contact with my union and ACAS in the morning in a hope that they can negotiate a better package for me.

My colleague told me tonight that another person on the wider team also 'disappeared' this afternoon, which although is obviously horrible for her, it did make me feel a tiny bit less shit that it was just me.

I just want to sleep as my head is spinning, but my 6 year old is up already as she's been sick and is still feeling yucky. Think I'm in for a long night. Never rains but it pours!

I’m sorry, it’s crap being singled out, especially when you’ve been there so long. 💐

Do you have any idea why they’ve chosen you over the other part time person?

I think they should have offered it to all of you. The one who just returned might have jumped at the opportunity.

OP, is your solicitor being paid for as part of your house insurance? I was in a very similar situation & as I had higher than a 51% chance of a successful case, the battle was paid for by my house insurance.

You need to keep every email, text, thorough details of conversations that took place.

I am sorry you’re going through this.

Depends on what insurances you have - if you have income protection and mortgage protection then these could be invalid if you took voluntary and may be worth more than 45 days pay extra. Otherwise I would take it as pp and get job hunting today (obvs with full advice)

Definitely ask for more money - it will be there in the background. Don’t bother fighting it, but get the best deal you can.

Perhaps work out how many months pay they are effectively giving you overall, and ask for two or three months more.

If there’s another role in the wider team looking likely for redundancy - as you say they just disappeared then I’d follow the advice of a PP and get out whilst you still can with the best deal possible.

Multiple redundancies make everyone twitchy.

The woman from HR said the company will pay upto £250 for a solicitor for me. So using that to see one on Thursday.

Unfortunately I don't have redundancy cover, but my employer doesn't know that. Do you think I could say I need an enhanced package to cover a years pay, as otherwise I'll be forced to not accept the package in order to claim off a policy. Or would I not get away with that? If my calculations are correct and there's no tax on the payment, I'm getting the equivalent of around 9 months pay, so would be asking for another 3 months.

From when I was made redundant a few years ago, I remember that we got a certain amount from the company to go to talk to a solicitor about being made redundant.

However you might find that the £250 disappears quite quickly - so check your house insurance to see if you have legal insurance that would also give you advice. or if you're in a union, you may get legal insurance through that...

And I'd try not to make any directly untrue statements in case they discover later about it and then try to reclaim stuff from you. So saying that you want £££ because if you take voluntary redundancy you won't get specific payments isn't worth doing if you don't actually have that cover. But saying something similar - along the lines of that they are putting you in a tricky position wanting you to take voluntary redundancy because it can have knock on effects, eg on whether or not you're eligible to claim other cover on redundancy insurance, or on eligibility for new mortgages or the cost of house or car insurance that you have to buy... There are all sorts of things that will suddenly become more expensive now you are redundant.

The last paragraph is completely true because you're not claiming that any of them specifically apply to you - just that they are some of the well known effects of your cost of living rising due to being made redundant. If they put 2+2 together to make 5 and it works in your favour, then that's their fault for making wrong /unchecked assumptions.

You're essentially saying the same thing - that will hopefully have the same result of getting them to give you more money - but there are no facts in it that they can turn around and nit pick that they are not exactly correct and lose you money or cause problems down the line. Hope that makes sense!

Not sure if you have seen this advice page from the Money Saving Expert site - www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/redundancy-help
Would be worth a read for a good basic overview of what to do.

Hope your dd isn't too ill and you're not up all night with her.

Also - do you have anything in the office that you want? Personal things in your desk drawer? Coffee cup? Picture on your desk? Reference books that are your personal ones? Files on the computer - might be difficult to get in and there are probably ones that you shouldn't have access to any more but there might be personal emails on there or photos or I don't know what - but any chance you can get to the office to sort it all out before things get wiped or thrown? Or could you get a colleague to sort things for you? Worth thinking about now as it could be too late very quickly if they are hoping that you will just sign quickly and go.

OP, be careful taking some the advice here, clearly a lot of the people replying don't understand she is coming back from a year's sick leave, and not maternity. Go talk to your union rep, good luck

Um, no tilly, youre the one who has misunderstood. She went on Maternity December 2016, which was for a year, and lasted til December 2017. A week after coming back from maternity, she took a week off as sick leave, which she just returned from.

What I can’t get my head round is the fact that you trained the woman up when she returned from mat leave. Therefore you must be very competent in your job. I’d definitely be asking questions as to why you. On what criteria.

The competency testing thing is just going through the motions. They've already decided that you are the least competent of the three. Whether that's true or not is not the point. They might want rid of you for other reasons that are nothing to do with competency but it will be almost impossible for you to prove that. More often than not it's a simple case of politics and personalities and just not being the right fit any longer for the direction management is taking.

I'd take the enhanced package and go quietly as any other approach is highly unlikely to end in you keeping your job and very likely to put you through a ton of stress you can do without. Don't take the first package they offer though, make them work a bit to get rid of you. Push for a better payout, but accept that it's over for you there and make your peace with it.

Your union should negotiate your package for you - a year’s wages sounds very reasonable - and provide your legal cover. They can also speak to ACAS on your behalf. It’ll depend on your contract but your notice period may be taxable, although they could agree to make your redundancy in April so it would be in the new tax year and a new personal allowance.

OP, just a quick word of advice. If you're being offered a compromise package rather than redundancy it's effectively you leaving the Company rather than them getting rid of you, so any mortgage protection for redundancy won't come into play.

Are the other two part timers or just you? So the company are saying they have 2.5 staff and now only need 2?

If you've got union, I would use them to the fullest extent.

Have you calculated that they owe you 9months or is it them giving you the value ?

A statutory redundancy is 1.5w per year worked. That’s 16.5 weeks in your case+45days which is 6.5weeks. That’s 23w. Which is around 4 months pay. Also it’s capped at around £489/week and if you earn more per week you’d not get more with the redundancy.

So If they are offering you 9 months of payment they are offering you way above what you’d get in a normal redundancy so I’d def take it as you might not get all this if you all go to a pool.

I don’t work for HR but have been at risk or companies have gone redundancy processes so many times that I know what the redundancy law is.

So they march you out of the building and tell you they are making YOU redundant?

No, they have to make the role redundant and go through a proper consultation process with the three of you.

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4256

They haven't gone about it the right way which may give you more power. Personally, I would use it as leverage to get more money then get out.

This sort of crap is so common. Not sure I would want to work for a company that does this type of thing but I've known people who've taken the money and run and other people who've fought it and stayed. I think decide the outcome you want and fight for that.

Also, take into account how easy/difficult it would be to find another similar job.

I was made redundant (treated badly) but was quids in as I managed to find another better paid job in a few weeks. On the other hand, I have a friend who has been made redundant and she is struggling to find a decent job.

Legally your colleague returning from maternity has to be offered her job back.

That's the case after ordinary maternity leave ( up to 6 months) but there's a tweak for additional maternity leave where it has to be an equivalent job but not necessarily 'her' job.

@neverhadanymarblestolose if you're a member of a union you don't need your rep details from the intranet at work. Contact the union directly with your membership number. They can reach your rep for you.

Speak to them too. They'll be able to help you negotiate a far better severance package to leave quietly or advise you on best course of action.

In all truth if they've already singled you out, I'd expect the competency assessment to be built in favour of the preferred candidates which is easy to do but hard to prove.

Best of luck.

My mum was in a similar situation a few years ago. Unfortunately not much you can do as pregnancy/maternity are protected under the Equality Act. My mum left and nver looked back. Also happeded where I worked but the lady who was due to come back from maternity leave asked them to make her redundant instead as it meant saving her best friends job.

Competency test is what most companies do. My DH's company did it.
His colleague got made redundant with a nice juicy packet and then was back in the same job with the company 12 months later!
Understandably DH was peed off that his colleague basically got paid for a year off Work.
I'm afraid it's not fair but if it's a decent years wage redundancy money then I'd take it and run, they'd soon regret letting the unreliable woman stay!

But yes it all sounds legal.