Not given interview for job done previously

[nc4050]

First of all sorry for very long post but looking for advice.

BIL applied for role in NHS which has previously been his role for 2 years. He left as it was temporary and went to work for private company but really dislikes it so applied for his role again. Generally well thought of, non existing sickness level, many staff members wanting his return as the job is not getting done and things going wrong on the department.

He emailed his previous manager to say he would like to return but did not receive a response. Now, lets just say this manager is unhinged, a notorious liar and he does not know if yet but has a huge fraud investigation open into him with an external agency due to claiming personal travel (trains, hotels, fuel etc) as his business expenses The system in place in this trust clearly needs looking at and this man has apparently put through £1000's worth of claims.
When the job advert finally came out, BIL was told manager was going around telling people that he would be hiring a lower banded employee from a different department (before the interviews had even taken place) he seems to get fixated on younger members of staff and wants to fill the department with younger, less competent workers but ones that will take his fraudulent claims to the cash office for him!

BIL put in an excellent application form and was expecting an interview. He is extremely articulate and there was no way that he did not fit the criteria of the role he previously did. The job was on standstill for 3 weeks until I believe HR told the manager he had to interview or it would be pulled. The reason for the standstill being is that he did not want to give BIL an interview, he knew who he wanted and that was that but he was trying to find a way out of it. Three days before the interview took place another member of staff told BIL that he didn't have an interview and then BIL received a lovely email (composed by chatGPT) from previous manager telling him that he couldn't interview him as it was an internal job but should things change, he would be welcome back (which we know is a lie) the role was not internal at all. It was open to external candidates and BIL has the proof. His application still sits on the platform used to apply and has not even been marked as unsuccessful or role filled or anything as of yet.

He spoke to HR who were absolutely useless and said, you were placed on a reserve list but no one dropped out so manager technically has not done anything wrong. Except manager lied and said it was internal only and the application still sits on the site without showing any update. He even emailed HR the day before the interviews took place as soon as he found out to explain that he has been told he's not been given an interview and the manager has already been going around saying who will be getting the job and he thought it was unfair that he would not even be interviewed. This was the case, the inexperienced candidate from another department who was encouraged to apply by manager got the role. He got no reply from this HR response but sent another email to someone higher and received a response yesterday telling him he had been reserved so it was fine, no wrong doing.

I believe there was outrage from a few of the members of staff there that BIL was not even given an interview as he was well liked by everyone (apart from this manager obviously)

Is there any chance this could be taken to a tribunal or not as manager lied to him. The whole thing was stalled because manager was trying to find a way not to interview BIL. Obviously he does not work for the trust anymore so I don't know if this stands a chance or not.
This mans behaviour needs to be addressed. I can't see him keeping his job once the fraud allegations are placed in front of him, people wonder why the NHS has no money and you have people like him given some power and access to funds and this is what they do!

Having previously worked in the NHS, I can very much believe the hiring manager had someone else in mind. But proving it can be difficult, even if someone says they heard X say they’d hire Y over Z for whatever reason. I’d move on personally.

How does your BIL know about the investigation? Can he approach whoever has organised it to point out that presumably once they get rid of this man they presumably don't want a load of incompetents left who he has recruited to turn a blind eye to his activities?

@nc4050 honestly I am recruiting within my department (NHS) and it's very common error on behalf of the applicant. They think they know the job and do the application accordingly without looking at the small print/ desired criteria enough.

And yes, entitlement: I've done the job before, you know me therfore you have to give me an interview. Ehhm nope - you might have a lousy attitude to work, therfore I don't want you on my permanent team. The other person has addressed all points in the person specification, and so on ...

And for balance: I missed out on an internal job because: the person who got it had more experience than myself! I recruited & trained that person.... my advice let it go.

Why are women perpetually solving men's problemsfor them? I say this as someone who is guilty of it too at times...

Where is his lengthy post about his job situation on reddit about this???

The reason for the standstill being is that he did not want to give BIL an interview, he knew who he wanted and that was that but he was trying to find a way out of it.

How could you - or your BIL or anyone - possibly know this? For someone who applied for a job and got nowhere, your BIL has somehow managed to frame the entire recruitment situation around how excellent he is, how shit the manager and the successful candidate are, and how the whole thing was motivated by trying to keep him out of the running for nefarious purposes. Seems dodgy that you and BIL know all about this huge fraud investigation too when the manager is unaware of it. Clearly there's a lot of gossip and back-channelling in this dept, and some bad management too no doubt, but that just adds to the sense that it's a toxic workplace that BIL should run a mile from, rather than buy in to this being a conspiracy to keep him out and want to work there so much (even though he left) that he'd consider taking it to a tribunal when really nothing's happened to him.

There is a target for all nhs trusts to reduce costs and one main drive is to favour internal recruitment before going outside.

They could claim that it advertised externally by error. Ultimately they do have an internal candidate that is capable to do the job, so they could easily justify they are following NHS recommendations and did the right thing.

Sadly, when you leave the NHS nowadays, coming back to it is much harder than it used to be especially for non clinical roles.

If there was a standstill on recruitment there may have been an organisational reason for this. It is not uncommon in NHS recruitment due to financial pressures. At which point they may adopt a policy of internal appointments for staff at risk.

There is a lot of information on your post about the manager, his decision making and the process that sounds like gossip. A fraud investigation shouldn’t be widely known, conjecture about why appointments are made is just conjecture and team members shouldn’t be telling your husband he is a shoe in.

Where are you and your husband getting all this information from? And do you really think if you are in a circle of trust for this type of gossip the manager doesn’t know.