redundancy advice - is this legal....?

[rusty100]

I have been in a sales job for 7 years. I've been pretty successful. Last year I was 75% of target. Noone else in team was near target.

Boss has been an incompetent since appointment 6 years ago. We all succeed in spite of him.

The Company is doing badly tho. and it has been deemed that the sales team are the problem. A colleague uncovered a proposal to the board from our boss, the Sales & Marketing Director to recruit replacement staff with a slightly different title and description but essentially the same job & make us redundant in stages - but 6 months after the appointment of our replacements.

One has been recruited, under very fishy circumstances, I expect one of the team to be made redudant 6 months after this appointment which will be in Sept.

Because of some success and a range of mitigating circumstances I think we couldn't be performance managed out. We haven't been unsuccessful enough.

I suspect that having this document outlining the plans and the jobs being so similar means we could have a case for constructive dismissal. I wouldn't know where to start though. Do I try ACAS? My perception is that CAB is onerous. Is there a no win no fee route I could chose. I'm a single parent and this would have a catastrophic effect on me/family. I also can't afford a solicitor.

I would be very grateful for any advice.

Do you belong to a union? This should definitely be your first step. CAB is definitely not the way to go with this one unless you can guarantee seeing a specialist. There are a number of other pro-bono legal organisations which may be able to help you out for free. Hope this helps, it definitely sounds dodgy but proving your case may be more difficult to prove. Your case really depends upon how obvious the communication is or whether it could just be an interpretation IYSWIM.

There are ways for a company to restructure change job titles and lose people if it is done properly they will be inside the law. You say you have been mismanaged have ever brought this to the attention of anyone more senior?

If the document clearly says "our cunning plan is just to relable exactly the same jobs, and this way we can make them redundant but we all know they're not really" then you woukd be home and dry with an unfair dismissal case.

I woukdn't resign and claim constructive dismissal because it's a much harder test and it coukd take up to a year for your case to be heard.

Bear in mind that even if you win, a year after judgement a third of claimants still haven't been paid any money by the company. It is risky to rely on the system for financial security.

Your best bet is to very actively look for another job!

This advice is all great, thank you v much. I shall try ACAS 1st I think.
We haven't been openly critical of our manager. Thre is a general sense of bewilderment that he still has a job across the business. I suspect he is harder to shift than we are, & he's extremely plausible.
We aren't planning on going anywhere if possible. We all love job & company & would love to turn things around.The thinking is that the manager is incompetent, & that the strategy is as usual poorly thought out and executed and that we could use legal advice to put him on the back step if he tries any fast moves.

i'd post this in employment too - there are some good experts on that board