Where do I stand on this?

[Paddingtonthebear]

I work part time and have been in my job for nearly three years. There is another employee who also works part time who does a similar job to me. On our contracts we have the same job title and recently we have been job sharing. They have been with the company less than a year. My employer has recently taken on a full time member of staff who has the same job title as us and is now doing the majority of the work that we would do. Where do I / we stand legally if my employer was to say that they have no longer requirement for a part time member of staff? Do they need to make both me and the other part timer redundant? Can they even do this if they have recently taken a full time staff member who is doing the same job? I am not sure where I stand legally and I am trying to find out as I have a bad feeling about it.

Bump

Anyone?

If they had a reduced need for employees to perform work of that particular kind then they would put you all into a pool and score you against one another.

Is there enough work for the FT and the two PT positions? Does being PT impact on the job?

The workload has changed/increased quite considerably hence taking on a new member of staff. There is enough work but the majority is now being given to the new full timer as they are there every day from 9-6 and we are part time working school hours. We cannot work until 6pm, they asked us. What I want to know is could my employer basically say they don't need / want part time staff anymore?

If they had a reduced need for employees to perform work of that particular kind then they would put you all into a pool and score you against one another

The company would need to firstly announce the need to reduce the number of employees in that section. They would also need to define a Consultation period normally around 4 weeks.

Companies often offer the chance for someone in the pool to take voluntary redundancy because

a) it is divisive and unpleasant knowing you're going head to head against (potentially) a colleague/friend

b) a voluntary situation is always best esp if the person going is ready to leave anyway. In that scenario, the more motivated employee/s remain, so a win -win.

They can't just say "we don't need you 2 part timers, so we have recruited this new f/timer and we're giving them all your work"

They have to go through the correct procedure. Full transparency and HR will always be very visible at that stage.

Have you expressed your concerns to HR (if you have such a function)?

If there's enough work for the three of you, there should be no reason to worry at the moment.

If work diminishes, your employer could decide they need to make redundancies and would then need to go through a suitable process. They wouldn't be able to select you just purely because of your part time status.

Thank you. No HR function.