Emmz0,
Flowery is giving you good advice here. Taking employers to a tribunal is very stressful, time consuming, and rarely ends with a pot of gold. I haven't heard of no-win no-fee solicitors in this area and would be surprised if there are any because it is such a specialised area. If you did find a cheap solicitor it would be because they weren't very good. If it were me I would ask questions in this forum, get an initial consultation with a solicitor and then prepare the case myself. Once you know the basics of the law most of the cost comes from gathering, analysing and documenting information. I put in a claim for sex discrim and constructive a few years back and only used the lawyers when I needed to send the company something on their letterhead. It's doable but you need first and foremost to put emotions aside and deal with it as a purely business issue - very difficult in practice.
At the moment you don't have a case, although I can see your concerns from the other thread. The other problem I would have with any case that may arise is that although tribunals do support claims made under s10, it is my gut feeling that they are not really coming down like a ton of bricks on companies that flout this rule, because (a)it is very little-known and (b) applying it can put the company at risk of discrimination claims from men. So any payout may be small, unless this claim was part of a wider discrimination case covering lots of different issues.
That's not to say that there aren't things that can be done now. From what you say it seems that:-
- There will be redundancies at some stage in the near future
- Alternative roles will be in the North
- They are looking for people to agree to move up north in advance of the redundancy process
- There was coincidentally a recent internal vacancy in a role which you believe will not relocate, and this was filled by a colleague.
From the above there is probably no case, unless you can prove that the internal role just filled was only created in anticipation of the restructuring process and was not coincidental to it. Then you might have a squeek at proving that they only created and filled this role in advance in order to exclude you from consideration. But it would be a very risky case to take on and prove, especially if the role went to a female colleague. If you can give us more details we can advise further.
You also need to consider what you want to achieve? Is it a continuing local job or a payoff?
If you are looking for a continuing job at the current location then you will have to wait and see what happens in the redundancy. A riskier option if you don't mind getting HR heated (which can lead to them working out how to get rid of you) then you could send a letter/email to HR saying that you were very disappointed that you did not get the internal transfer you requested and that you are concerned to ensure that the redundancy process is fair, that selection of pools is carried out in accordance with current employment laws and that they are aware of the Section 10 regulations with regard to women on OML. Ask them to confirm that they are aware of the S10 regulations and will be acting in accordance with them.
TBH if you were my client I would advise you to sit tight and say nothing and wait to see what happens. Firing off emails turns the heat up and to be honest, I am not sure (without further detail) that your case warrants it at this stage.