Can you help? Redundancy-related

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Hello all, I'm new here and would be grateful for any help/advice. Sorry if this is a bit long, its not that straightforward.

I work in the public sector and a few months ago was told my post was being made redundant. A number of posts were being cut, so we had to go through an internal interview process to compete for the remaining jobs. I wasn't successful, so I was given my redundancy notice (8 weeks).

A few days before I was due to finish, I was told about another role that had come up, very similar to mine, but in a different part of the organisation. This was on a 12-month contract. I was asked to confirm on that day if I wanted to apply for it, so I said yes. I had an interview and was contacted on the day after my contract had finished to say I'd been successful and was offered the job. I started a few days later. I've had nothing in writing - no appointment letter, contract, or removal of my redundancy notice.

Since then, the work I'd been doing to find a job (when I thought I was going to be jobless) has paid off, and I've been offered a permanent role elsewhere. Because the role in my current organisation is fixed-term, it was no contest really, and I want to accept the permanent role.

As I'd been in my current role for a few weeks, I spoke to HR off the record to see whether I had a four-week trial period for the role (during which time the employer/employee could say that the role wasn't suitable), saving having to give two months' notice. Initially I was told yes, but I'd need to put my reasons for the job being unsuitable in writing and it was down to them to see whether they agree (my reason was that I'd been moved from permanent to contract work). After that discussion, HR talked among themselves and I was advised that they were thinking about changing the fixed term role to an open ended contract, so I should get my letter in quickly, which I did. After waiting a week for a response, I'm now being told that the four-week trial period never applied (the new role is so similar to my old one that its just a continuation of my contract). Apparently I'm goingt o get the reasons in writing soon, but I wanted to sound out whether anyone thought this sounded a bit dodgy? They've taken legal advice, so I feel I need to be strong ground to respond.

Grateful for any comments/insights!

thank you

Doesn't sound like it's been handled particularly well in terms of letters etc, but I'm unclear as to whether you actually now think this role is unsuitable or not?

Hi flowery, thanks for your message. Yes, I'm trying to say that the role is unsuitable because it's not permanent and I want to revert to being redundant.

Well in terms of a right to a trial period, if your role was redundant and this was an alternative they were claiming as being 'suitable', then yes you would have had the right to a trial period. You were given notice of redundancy and this was an alternative. I'm interested to say you were asked whether you wanted to apply for it, rather than you were told you were being placed into it and your redundancy notice withdrawn as such. It sounded like at the time they were giving you the option to apply for the role or take redundancy - is that right? What would have happened had you opted not to apply?

If it is definitely fixed term then usually you'd be able to refuse it as being unsuitable, but a trial period is to find out whether something is suitable. So if you're arguing that it isn't suitable because of the fixed term nature of it rather than the content of the job, they will say you knew the fixed term nature from day one, it's not something that became clear during the first four weeks.

You say you do definitely still think it is unsuitable - have they scrapped plans to make it permanent then? You mentioned they were likely to make it open-ended. If you were to claim it as being unsuitable because of the fixed term nature and they were to come back and say ok we'll make it permanent, there's not a lot you could do about that.

Thanks again flowery.

Regarding the option to apply: i was asked to decide on the same day if I wanted to go for the role. So yes, in hindsight i should have thought this through more, but I felt under pressure to make a quick decision. It was all rushed through before I left (I ended up coming in on my last day, which was a day's leave, for my interview). I asked (retrospectively) what would have happened had I decided not to go for the role, and was told that that would have had to have been discussed.

That's interesting what you say about the suitability. I hadn't realised that it only applied to the content of the job (rather than other factors). I'd interpreted it differently.

Yes, they haven't come back to me re making any changes to the role, they're just saying that its a continuation of my old role, so the question of whether its suitable doesn't apply! Also, at the time of interview I questioned it being a fixed term post and was told that was all they could offer at that stage. I'm waiting for a response from them in writing, so I'll see what they say. Thanks for your input!

It's not that it's specifically written anywhere that the trial period only applies to the job content, but the point of it is for both parties to try out the job and establish whether or not it's suitable, so really in practice it only applies to job content and any change to terms and conditions such as location/hours that might need 'testing'.

See what they say, but particularly if they now say it's not fixed term, you won't have a leg to stand on trial period or no trial period and if you want to leave you will need to resign as normal.

I would recommend speaking to your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) as they are very useful and will spend as long with you as you need to go through your case in detail. They will also recommend who else you should speak to.
I've just come back from maternity leave second time round to find my public sector job is being made redundant although my maternity cover has been made permanent!
It is very frustrating and upsetting and sometimes you just need to know where you stand.

PS: And vent on a blog like I'm doing for free always helps get it out of your system!! :0

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