Can they do this?

[askingforadvice]

Redundancy situation, only me involved. There have been issues, which I had brought to HR's attention, so, knowing the culture here, am not surprised this is happening.

Working out my options now.

My job is being made redundant and a new, higher level job is being created, with ''a diferent skillset''.

The new JD pretty much matches mine, but at a higher level. So, my job will not be going anywhere, just 100% absorbed into this job with a higher remit.

Company are being careful, but reading between the lines they wil not want me to apply for the job, if they had wanted me doing the job, they would have just promoted me.

The new JD also has requriements for qualifications that I don't have.

In my next meeting, I shall ask them to explain, in detail, the job mapping process and how they came to the decision that this was a redundancy situation and not a promotion.

My history at the company has always been excellent, with good appraisals, so it's not a performance thing.

When I spoke to HR before all this kicked off I was considering a grievance, I have plenty of e mail evidence.It pretty much relates to lack of training and restricting career development, which all seems quite ironic now, seeing that they want someone with more training and who's career has developed past mine.

So, firstly, are they doing something that could be taken to a tribunal and secondly, what are my options?

I'm no expert at all,but hopefully someone will be able to help you, but this sounds very similar to what happened to my Mum.

She was a middle manager in a company and suddenly, her job no longer existed and she was made redundant. Slightly different to your situation in that initially she accepted it with good grace, but later discovered her exact responsibilities had been given a new name and her assistant had been promoted into the job which was identical 100% (same desk even) to my Mum's. She began tribunal proceedings and won a payout.

So on the basis of that, if the job is identical, then I reckon you should definitely look into it. Hope you sort something out.

Are the responsibilities/tasks of the job the same as yours? Is it only the new requirement for qualifications that has changed? If the job is virtually the same and you have been performing those responsibilities well, then it doesn't sound like a genuine redundancy unless there is a very good reason why the post now requires the qualification.

Yes, the responsibilities are largely the same. There are a couple of large projects coming up which will, realistically, be largely underway, possibly complete, by the time the new person would come in board.

They want someone more 'strategic', with, they say, a consulting background. A higher powered version of me, but when you break it down to tasks, it is pretty much what I have been doing, albeit in a less polished manner and without the credit (boss taking credit for my work.)

There has been a history of prevention of development (not just lack of development) that I complained about. Things like 'no budget' for training for me, but budget was available for my colleague, deliberate exclusion from meetings, e mails, conversations etc, prevention from approaching higher level management etc. so it's been impossible to get to the appropriate level with the current management in place.

What do you think?