To think this was an unfair dismissal

[Twist89]

To cut a long story short... I’ve been made redundant.

My boss made just my job redundant, saying they don’t need two people doing that job (the other person has stayed)

It was only us in the redundancy pool, which I argued wasn’t fair. Basically, I am a writer and would concentrate on certain topics whereas the rest of the office would concentrate on others. However, our jobs are interchangeable with transferable skills and I would often do the same work as everyone else (and they would do the work I do too). Basically, we often wrote the same things.

In the past I have had different roles in the company, including the role they haven’t made redundant. I’ve been there longer than most of the team, and have the same qualifications as they do. The jobs had the same expectations and responsibilities, the difference is the content we MAINLY focused on.

But my boss says my job title was technically different and it’s the role they’ve made redundant, with no other vacancies in the company. I’ve never had a contract with this role, my contract states my old role.

Does this sound fair to you?

Why did they select you for redundancy instead of the other person?

@Flutist they used a scoring system and the other person scored higher. I’m not surprised though, they’re good friends with the boss

Sorry op How long did you work there? How much notice did they give?

Try ringing ACAS for advice

I work in a very very large company with a lot of PAs. I know that some PAs in my department were made redundant recently but the PAs in other departments weren’t put in the pool (all the PAs do essentially the same work). So I don’t think that you will have a case I’m afraid

Just a thought, but wouldn't it have been better to have made the remaining hours into two P/T positions, until one of you found a F/T job either in the company, or elsewhere.

If the other person scored higher for no good reason that could be unfair?

If you've been doing the job for a while then I believe you're considered to have accepted the contract even if you've never signed it.

Presumably they are paying you redundancy and your notice?

How long have you worked there?

Have you appealed the decision? That would be the first step.

I can understand why you’re pissed off OP, but I don’t think you’d get anywhere with this. It isn’t unfair dismissal, you’ve been made redundant.

It can still be unfair dismissal if she was unfairly selected for redundancy
OP if you think that is the case take some advice

ACAS in the first instance.

Then perhaps a good employment solicitor

Check if your House insurance has legal expenses cover

How long have you worked there? Is your job title in fact different to those not in the redundancy pool?

Presumably you have a right to appeal? I would raise your points there in the first instance.

It can still be unfair dismissal if she was
unfairly selected for redundancy

I think you mean if the OP can prove she was unfairly selected. And even then that’s only if she has worked there for over 2 years.

I’ve been in the OPs position where I’ve been made redundant from a pool of candidates and it sucks, to be honest I prob felt it wasn’t done fairly too. But bosses will keep who they want to keep, even with a scoring system. That’s just the way it works.

I’ve worked there four years (a long time in this industry)

I technically had a different job title but much of the time we did the same job. The boss even hired new people shortly before making me redundant. That’s why I believe it was unfair.

When this happened to me, my lawyer advised that, unless I had a smoking gun proving that I was unfairly discriminated because of my gender/race/religion/political views/etc , the only realistic option was to suck it up.

Every case is different, and strangers' opinions are no substitute for proper legal advice, though. But do bear in mind that proving discrimination is incredibly hard; if you're a writer, I'd guess evaluating your work is fairly subjective, and your employer can easily come up with ways to justify why they think the other person's work is "better". Unless there are very objective criteria involved, how do you challenge that?

Are they offering you some compensation on top of statutory redundancy?

No it’s only statutory @MissDuke

I believe my boss has never liked me but i’ve never been able to work out why. He became my boss about 2 years ago and wanted to change my contract to something very unreasonable. It caused me a great deal of stress, as I suffer from anxiety anyway. In the end I had to tell him this and he dropped the changes. But maybe he held a grudge ever since.

Call the acas free advice line.