AIBU to think they’d have to make me redundant?

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I am part of the senior management team at my employer and we have just been informed by the parent company of a “reshuffle”.

Let’s say I work at a paint factory and I’m in charge of marketing, someone else is in charge of Purchasing, there’s someone in charge of formulation and so on.

The parent company have decided it will be more efficient to have someone who will run all the marketing, purchasing, formulation and so on for red paint, another manager for blue paint and so on.

I’ve been told that I will need to reapply for which ever paint colour I want, but that they are promising we will get a paint colour and the salary will not change.

But, I don’t want to be in charge of red or blue or what ever; I don’t feel I know enough about purchasing or formulation, and I’ve spent ages getting the marketing spot on…

Obviously the paint factory is just a metaphor for my real office based role; but can the company just let me go if I don’t want to be “reshuffled”. I’ve worked for the company for five years.

I seem to think if they want to do this it will have to be a proper redundancy procedure but HR doesn’t seem to think so.

I am a member of a union, but they have been rather toothless and just told me to “wait and see what happens.”

You won't be made redundant as part of any organisation change process if there is a role for you in the new structure and its reasonably similar to your previous one.

You could argue that the new role isn’t a suitable alternative and that you should rightly be made redundant. They may have a different view, and you’d need to go to tribunal for a decision. If you don’t accept a role and they are saying that you’re not redundant then in that situation there wouldn’t be a redundancy payment due - again, only a tribunal can decide if that is the case.

You don’t have to apply for a role if there is a redundancy situation, but it looks as though the consolidated roles will result in more current people than future jobs.

What you can do is refuse the new role, but you will need a valid reason for the company to avoid paying you redundancy. This may be tricky if they’re offering training and support in the elements you are not experienced in.

ACAS will give you free advice given your union sounds wet, but actually the “wait and see” approach may be more useful than you think. If you follow the process redundancy may be an inevitable outcome of not getting a role during interview.

www.acas.org.uk/manage-staff-redundancies/offer-alternative-employment

The above link is aimed at employers but covers the situation you describe. They can refuse to pay you redundancy and it's up to you to challenge that decision at tribunal.

If the new role is equivalent to your old one there's probably not much you can do. If it's not then you might have a shout for constructive dismissal but unless there's a discrimination angle then any payout is going to be paltry.

First point of call if you are really concerned would be a chat with an employment lawyer.

Change is going to happen anyway. So, in reality, what have you got to lose by applying for one of these roles?

At the very least buys time until you can find something better.

It sounds as if the company are intending to change the terms of your contract but it's not an immediate redundancy situation given that no roles are being lost. If that's the case they should still follow a consultancy process with you to discuss the changes and get your agreement to change your role.

If you can't reach agreement there could be a 'dismiss and rehire' scenario and a potential redundancy but the business still needs to follow the right process.

My advice would be to start discussions with an open mind. It sounds as if they want to retain you all and should be open to a consultation about how this change might work. You may even find that it brings other opportunities that you haven't considered.

If you genuinely can't agree then you can talk about what happens next.

This might be useful:

www.acas.org.uk/changing-an-employment-contract/advice-for-employees

This has just happened in a large department I work with. So basically their jobs were deleted and they all had to re-interview for the new jobs, with a wider remit, and there was no redundancy offer as there was a job for everyone.

They now have a whole bunch of people with no idea what they are doing and not properly qualified. It's a shit show and pitched as a restructure not redundancy. I would get proper legal advice from an employment lawyer.

Have this moved to employment issues OP.

Suggest getting advice from ACAS or legal advice via your home insurance (if you have it).

This blog is a helpful summary of the issues. blog.myhr.works/difference-between-restructure-and-redundancy?hs_amp=true

Basically your old job is going so the job is redundant. You have been offered an alternative. So far you are not eligible for redundancy.

But if you can argue the new role it isn’t a suitable alternative (e.g. because you aren’t qualified to do a substantial part of it not that you don’t want to do this role) you might be eligible for redundancy or a settlement agreement.

As HR isn’t receptive you will need legal advice to make this claim effectively

It's surely a fairly mute point. They would only be obliged to give you 5 weeks pay by law. If you don't want the new job, I would just start looking for something else