My dh was made redundant in January. It was out of the blue. Prompted by change at the top and, I think, a personality clash. My brother put him in touch with a good friend of his who is lawyer. She was very helpful and thought he definitely had a case for unfair dismissal as apparently they had not followed the proper procedure. He was also appealing against his redundancy as he held a global role (redundant) and a head of London role (not redundant - nor were any of the other heads made redundant in their other offices around the world.) He didn't want to take them to court necessarily but he did want to explore all avenues. Once my brother's friend had helped him all she could she put us in touch with an employment lawyer contact of hers. She rang dh and said that as she was quite expensive she would pass his 'case' over to one of her juniors. All fine up to now. We were told by the junior that it would cost £400 for a 2 hour consultation. I feel cross with myself because I encouraged dh to go ahead with this. We had been recommended this firm and I felt that if we got some really good advice dh could go into his appeal confident with his rights etc and we could perhaps bash it on the head. Anyway he saw this woman and thought she was really good. She talked him through his appeal but at no point, and he was with her for over 2 hours, did she mention to him that if he was to get another job he would not be able to pursue his unfair dismissal claim should he choose to.
We have 5 children and a pretty big mortgage and there is no way dh was not going to try and find another job. In fact both my brother's friend and the lawyer he saw knew he was looking for another job and had a couple of offers pending. Why didn't they mention this to him? The only way he found out was when he decided to accept one of these offers he rang the solicitor to ask where he would stand and found that she was on holiday. He asked to speak to one of her colleagues who told him that it would affect his case so that in fact he would have no case.
I just feel cross that dh worked so hard for this blimming company for 4 years, built up a team and turned up one morning and was canned. He was given statutory redundancy of which 2/3 (because he went over the 2 hours and VAT) will go straight to this firm of lawyers who in my opinion could have informed him over the phone and did eventually exactly where he stood re reemployment. Sorry for rant I feel duped again.
It doesn't seem fair that employers can get away with treating people this way. They didn't warn him of his redundancy, didn't follow correct procedures and it seems his deputy is now carrying out his job in all but name.
Sorry again I just feel cross for dh and annoyed that despite my research on the internet I didn't find out about not being able to proceed with a case for unfair dismissal if you found a new job.
My question to you all is should dh tell this solicitor that he feels he should have been informed re the new job if she had been doing her job properly?
I'm sure we'll have to pay and dh wants to and move on, I just feel we did not get sound advice and we certainly didn't get our monies worth. What would you do?
Poor dc want lunch and ratty mothers on the computer again. Thanks for listening I feel better having posted...