redundancy

[dandelionss]

I work for a medium sized family business which has just lost a very major contract and is consequently making redundancies.On monday last week I received a job saying I was in the selection pool for redundancy along with the other 2 people in the department.On Wednesday I received a letter saying I had been selected for potential redundancy and the criteria they had used.I was invited to a meeting on Friday where I was told the consultancy period was over and I was redundant taking effect immediately.I went home.Later I was reading through the criteria.I have longer service more experience and better qualifications than the other 2 employees (both full time men, I am part time). I had been marked down for 1) having 2 days off when the DC were ill and also for not working as long as it takes to finish the work (ie unpaid overtime. I regularly stay about half and hour late but I have to leave then to pick kids up from school.
I emailed my employer to say that i considered these criteria to be discriminatory. I received an email back saying that I was not redundant, and if I did not come back to work tomorrow I would be disciplined for unaiuthorised absence!!
It seems to me they know they have cocked up and are trying to undo the damage by pretending they didn't make me redundant.
I don't know what to do next!!

No brainer, you have the e-mails, you pointing out the mistake and them back tracking,
go into work, no point in giving points in their favour, as they will no doubt start to find other reasons to get rid of you and seek legal advice immediately.

did they give you a letter at the Friday meeting?

take copies of all docs, and keep the originals safely at home.

"selected for potential redundancy"

They have not yet made you redundant - this is a written notification that your post is under threat (which you already knew). They have told you the criteria they will be using, but not a decision yet.

This might be a good time to make representations about your value to the firm, and how little these criteria actually apply to you.

Do also think about the overall health of the company though. Will these redundancies see it through current problems? Or is this the first manifestation of a possibly even bigger problem?

Sorry. Ignore my last. I got the timetable in OP the wrong way round, and somehow ignored part of OP as well (am at home with sick DD, and beginning to wonder if I'm going down with it too, as I can't account for such a major misreading otherwise).

Yes,there has been a lockup.

Who (exactly) told you you were redundant, and who (exactly) said you were not? What is their relative seniority/clout/HR relevance? I take it you don't have a letter confirming what was said at the Friday meeting? Were there any third parties there who can confirm what you were told?

What upshot do you want from this? My final paragraph of earlier post still stands. Is the business viable, and do you want to continue to work there?

Are you in a union?