Made redundant on furlough

[user1485861797]

Hi all,
I was told a week ago that I was going to be made redundant (along with a few others). A big shock and the redundancy process was handled very poorly. However they have said that due to the current situation they were going to take advantage of furlough and keep us on furlough for 2 months, giving us time to find other jobs.
I have had a phone call today from my boss asking me to come off furlough to train someone else to do the parts of my job that they will be taking over. AIBU to be angry about this?? Or should I just suck it up and train the other person?

From the point of view of being able to claim the 80% pay from the gvt, if you've already been told you are being made redundant and you've been furloughed to train somone else, your employer would be committing fraud to falsely claim furlough payments for you for another 2 months.

Sorry that should say if you've been UNfurloughed to train someone else

Seek advice as you say you will.

I doubt if your situation will be the last of a similar nature.

This is horrible OP. Furlough is paid by taxpayer not the company but by telling you they are making you redundant but keeping furlough they are implying they are helping you out. They want you to train the other employee in return for this help. Ultimately you need a good reference and you need the furlough money so I dont see how you have a choice. You can of course refuse because you shouldnt be working but you can expect immediate redundancy with no money. This would leave a bitter taste. Try find something else and move on. Put it down to experience. Yanbu

@tinty they are not asking her to train someone whilst on furlough, they’ve decided to take her off, so perfectly legal in that respect.

OP, you’ve contradicted yourself later in your post. Have they decided to take you off furlough or not? Yes it will stick in your throat being made redundant, but this will happen to lots of people. Companies will merge jobs, but the fact you can’t do the job in its new form is hardly their fault. Never leave a job under bad circumstances, it could do you more harm than good, Its a very small world and you’ll be surprised how many people know other people, especially on social media. I have a friend who has walked out of so many jobs over the years, she now can’t apply for some as previous colleagues now work at some of these. By all means, check you are being treated fairly and legally, but it sounds like you are.

sounds shit, but if they're downsizing to keep going, or new ways of working requires less staff resource, integrating part of your role into that of another existing employee, it does sound as if your role is genuinely redundant, rather than taking on someone new to perform your existing role.
A PP made the point about giving both affected employees the opportunity to apply for the role - I guess the fairness of that would depend on how much of the remaining persons' role is composed of the elements 'inherited' from your role. It could be the 'extensive travelling around the UK 'that is decreasing. giving the other post holder time to pick up elements of your role.

I understand that it's hard to swallow, but do remember that it's the role that is being made redundant, it isn't a reflection on you or your work.

Lots of luck with finding a new role.

I was made redundant once and was pissed off at the gleeful way someone who was taking over part of my old job behaved, to the point of downright nastiness. She had no experience in that area, so I handed over only the absolute basics and not the more complicated bits, or the nuances, or the relationships necessary to do the role.

I was gone and had been paid by the time she realised she needed more info, she kept contacting me on LinkedIn for information and I just kept replying that I was too busy in my new job to try and do my old job as well. I heard from former colleagues that she cocked it up massively. She should have had more empathy for someone going through redundancy, rather than obviously showing off and being downright nasty to them.

If they pay you in full to train the other person I think it's fair enough. If you were made redundant not on furlough you would have to carry on doing your job until the end of the notice period. Furlough doesn't give you the right to be paid for doing nothing unless it suits the company. You should have been offered the chance to apply for the new role, but it doesn't sound like you want it anyway. I think you are justifiably annoyed to lose the job, but it would be better to try and get past that and think about how to turn things to your advantage (be reasonable, helpful, etc in case you ever need to work with these people again, whilst not jeopardising the longer notice period they've offered).

Thanks for the reply. Apparently the job is my job with sales as well. They've basically merged my job and another's into 1

I'm not really sure how it works but would they not have to make both those jobs redundant as neither are now required as stand alone positions and then recreate the brand new role (the 2 positions merged together) for the at risk employees to interview for?

[quote MintyFreshFemale]@tinty they are not asking her to train someone whilst on furlough, they’ve decided to take her off, so perfectly legal in that respect.[/quote]
I think the 'off furlough' could be the OP's interpretation. I suspect they've just ask her to go in & train the other person.

I wonder if she called ACAS

I'd have done what Tinty said. Sounds to me like they're trying to give her as much money as possible when legally she has no right to redundancy.

Yes, it's tax payer money, but little things like this, that help people are the least of the problem financially for the country.

I hope @user1485861797comes back to let us know how she's getting on.

Sticks in the throat though I can imagine

Well it really shouldn't. Companies cannot keep employees on that they can't afford. The OP CAN'T do the other persons job, the other person (with a little training) CAN do the OP's job. It's just common sense. Albeit unfortunate for the OP.

Train the other person, take the furlough money, get a good reference and move on, there's no option.

I say that as someone who is very likely to be made redundant too, due to lack of demand (I now work with school children, but not for a school) In the past I trained someone to do parts of my job (payroll & the easy bits) as they could no longer afford an Accountant on site - the rest of my job was done between the owner & an Accounting Company. It was one (of several) of the changes/savings I implemented for them to keep the Owners business going.