Redundancy and part time working

[JSSB]

I'm currently in consultation for possible redundancy. They are reorganising the department and it has been determined that the new roles are different enough from our current roles to require redundancy. We have been invited to apply for these new roles. I work 2 days a week due to family commitments. I've asked for how I will stand when it comes to applying for a job considering I work part time and have been told the new roles are full time. As such this means that everyone in my team will be made redundant as we all work part time and cannot change our working patterns due to commitments outside work. Can anyone provide any advice? My employer states in their employee handbook they support flexible working, however this policy doesn't seem to support this.

I had the same thing happen to me about 3 years ago after returning from Mat leave. I spoke to ACAS who were really helpful. The company must have a strong business case for their reasons and also must try and find you a suitable post within the organisation. How long have you been there? I was made redundant just before I hit the 2 year mark......interesting timing

Can two of you get together and job share? If the roles and both your skill sets are appropriate should be offered without any objection. (If it isn't then sue the bastards for sex discrimination!)

I've worked there for 8 years so will receive redundancy payment, however as my salary is now 2/5 what it was it is not that much. They aren't offering any form of enhanced redundancy. There is someone else in my team who I could possibly job share with but when I mentioned this to my manager they didn't seem very positive. We have a new director who joined around 2 years ago when I started my maternity leave. Since she has joined people in my wider team have been gradually leaving and being replaced with people the new director has worked with in the past. It feels like there is an ulterior motive to replace the team with "her" people. I'm trying to remain positive about it all and am going to apply for a job but am not that hopeful. I'm unclear from research I have done as to what my rights actually are.

Hi OP,

HR manager here, what a difficult situation and sadly it seems to be so common that employers and managers think inflexibly and say 'posts need to be full-time' despite the company professing to be flexible.

In terms of your 'rights' it's a hard one to say because it will depend on the justification for the posts needing to be full-time. If you and your colleagues can show that similar (albeit pre restructure) jobs have been working well as part-time and/or that with job-sharing etc. all the requisite hours and duties can be covered and/or that the business rationale for the posts needing to be full time is weak, that would give you a stronger case that it would be unfair dismissal for you to be made redundant, as a suitable alternative option exists. It could arguably also be indirect sex discrimination as proportionately more women than men work part-time and therefore arbitrary 'all posts are full time' decisions can affect women more than men.

However such cases (if they get as far as a court) are notoriously difficult, stressful and long-winded for the claimant so in practical terms you may be best off applying for the new posts, possibly with the job share option on the table and trying to negotiate as much flexibility as you can (whilst furiously looking for a better employer!).

If you are a member of a trade union they may be able to advise with a better knowledge of your workplace, or ACAS are also good.

Good luck OP!

I and my potential job share colleague threatened tribunal with a previous employer over refusal to consider a job share for a ft role - they made us redundant anyway but settled before court for a five figure amount which we were happy with. If you are to be made redundant they have to pay for you to have legal representation.

Thank you for your responses. The ironic thing is I work within an HR department although I’m not an HR specialist hence being unsure about the specific legislation. I feel I’m getting some mixed messages as it has been mentioned that I could use the reorganisation as an opportunity to go for a promotion however again it would be a full time role as the HR director would be looking for a commitment to the new team. I feel the implication is I’m not as committed as I work part time. In addition I also feel there may be an argument the whole process is flawed as to me the new roles are substantively the same as existing roles and there is no reduction in headcount. In fact they are even talking of recruiting. The only people in the wider team who work part time are all those who are older with young children. The people who currently work there and will be left are predominantly in their 20s without children 🤔