Posting here for traffic as the redundancy sub-topic gets very little.
I'm just wondering if any HR or lawyer types can advise me on whether it's worth speaking to an employment lawyer...I don't want to spend money having a consultation unless it's likely to help...
I would be so very grateful for any responses!
Here goes. I work in the City in Financial Services, I've always been a top performer and got top performance ratings...I worked very hard and quite often very long hours to maintain this performance.
I also have bipolar disorder.
Two years ago things got worse with my bipolar and I ended up taking 12 weeks off work, 4 of which were spent in a psychiatric hospital. I came back all guns blazing an working the same hours as before. My Line Manager (Line Manager 1) did not refer me to Occupational Health as is the correct process (I didn't know the process so didn't challenge it). I had another dip in mood a couple of months later and took off two weeks.
I had a verbal warning (followed up by email) on return about my sickness absence levels.
I now know this shouldn't have happened as had I have been referred to Occ Health they would have confirmed my condition was a disability and as such I can't be disciplined for it. I got a phased return to work but no other support or adjustments because Occ Health weren't aware of me.
Thus I continued as before and that, combined with some workplace bullying from one peer, led to me being off again almost a year later for 8 weeks, with another 3 week stay in hospital.
This time I had a different Line Manager (Line Manager 2) who did everything well. I got referred to Occ Health and have not had much time off over the following 18 months. One of the adjustments was that I would only work a normal 40 hour week as my psychiatrist said this was an absolute 'must' in terms of managing my condition.
During this time I changed Line Manager again(!). I raised with this Line Manager 3 that until I was taken ill I'd always received top performance scores and that afterwards I only get 'satisfactory' as without working silly hours it is not possible to over-achieve on the targets. Line Manager 3 basically said this was correct and I needed to make a personal decision between high performance/long hours/being ill and satisfactory performance/40 hours/being well.
I said this was fine but I was concerned that in any future redundancy situation this would work against me as our selection criteria use performance ratings as a large part of the selection process. Line Manager 3 had no answer to this (which was noted down in the minutes).
A few months later I received my bonus for my 'satisfactory/on target' performance and was upset to find that instead of an 'on target' amount I had 15% less. I had no negative feedback during the year and at no time during my performance review was it suggested I had not met any targets.
When I took this up with my new (fourth!) Line Manager 4 she said she'd been told by Line Manager 3 that it was because I couldn't do as much work since I'd been ill. I was pretty peeved and spoke to Line Manager 3 who said this was not the case, he didn't know why Line Manager 4 had said this but would give me no reason why my bonus was less other than 'he had to give high performers more and it had to come from somewhere'. I believed it should come from low performers not those on target but he did not agree.
Sorry...this is very long!
Anyway...I have now been put under consultation of redundancy. Four roles will be reduced to one role. I have not been selected as my performance reviews are only 'satisfactory' even though I get amazing feedback from other departments because I can't over-achieve without working long hours.
It feels like indirect discrimination to me...what do you think?
I don't really want to go to tribunal but would I be able to negotiate additional damages as part of my redundancy for this? Can I do that on my own or should I engage an (expensive) employment lawyer to show I mean business?