Employment law - swift, expert advice needed for DH

[MagicGenie]

DH was taken into a meeting at work yesterday and told his role is redundant due to a proposed restructure.

He has meeting with boss and HR soon to discuss.

There the potential for DH to raise for 'messy' disciplinary/grievance stuff. Need advice on whether it's worth it etc.

Will spill details if you're able to reply!

Thanks in advance x.

There is quite a bit of info around if you Google Employment LAw + redundancy.
Whether its worth it - only you can decide. If he is getting a good pay off, then I woud have thought winnng a greivance case would be less likely - but I'm no expert !

Yes, it may be worth it, as a bargaining tool. Check out the Dept. Trade and Industry website - think it's called Tiger but google will find it. All the employment law is there, but in terms that non-lawyers have a chance of understanding.

He has the right to take a representative into the meeting, which is always a good idea - someone else to take notes if nothing else. But the rep can be a union bod or lawyer.

I work in HR. If he raises a girevance at the redundancy meeting, the reaction will be to ask why he did not raise it before, and to suspect that it is just a ruse to try to get a higher payoff. It will put HR's backs up and will tend to reduce their co-operation.

If the grievance is genuine, he should raise it in a separate meeting ASAP. But he should consider what outcome he wants from the grievance before going down that track.

If 20 or more people are affected, the company has to use a formal group consultation process with affected staff. It is time to dig out the employment contract and check what that says about redundancy. A good employer will offer generous terms plus outplacement consultancy. Statutory redundancy is very small.

At the redundancy meeting, you are entitled to be accompanied by a colleague or a union rep, but not by a lawyer.

CK - he has raised it before. The HR bloke is well aware of the 'issues'.

What DH hasn't done is make formal complaint; he has gone to HR in a 'I'm letting you know, my boss is doing X, Y and Z and if it continues, I'll be complaining'.

Suddenly he's being made redundant. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise why!

What I meant in my original post was, at what stage during meetings to discuss redundancy should all this be raised/acknowledged? If at all?

Is he better raising it first (CAB reckon so, they think he has a case for Unfair Dismissal) or should he wait and see what their story/offer is?

Raise it first - get the issue on the table and make it clear that you will be looking at the selection process for redundancy very carefully.

It would proabbly be awkward to do this in a meeting with the boss present, so see HR and next level supervisor if possible.

But you should still think very carefully about the ideal outcome - for example no job with a pot of money; job safe and boss moved elsewhere; job safe and boss sacked. Also it can be hard or very hard to go all the way through a grievance process unless you have very clear evidence to support the case. If it is dh's word against the boss, then think twice.

IIRC, isn't there a legal maximum cap for grievance cases? You should check that out too to see if the potential financial reward is worth the legal/emotional costs.

See \link{http://www.cipd.co.uk/EmploymentLaw/FAQ/_Unfair_dismissal/Unfair_dismissal.htm?IsSrchRes=1\cipd unfair dismissal} for notes. Maximum award is £58,600.