On maternity leave and received notice of redundancy

[Oysterbabe]

I've been employed by my company for over 5 years and am currently on maternity leave. A few months ago I received an email from my company confirming that I'm at risk of redundancy. Today I have received a notice of redundancy. This is the only communication that I have received. The other information that I know about the situation has come from friends at the firm.

They had originally intended to close the branch entirely but have now decided to keep the branch open but massively downsize it, from around 100 people to around 20. All staff members have had an individual consultation except me. There have been various other communications to the staff since the announcement was made, such as they are offering a bonus if certain criteria are met.

I feel that I should have been offered a consultation and I should have been sent all the communication sent to the other staff about the office closure and the bonus, I understand there were numerous emails. Finally I feel that I should have been offered one of the roles in the new smaller office. I am certainly qualified for them and there are several people who have been offered roles that do the exact same job that I do.

Do you think that I have grounds to take this further? I just feel completely forgotten.

If there are still roles available that are the same pay/conditions as your current role which has been made redundant, then you should be offered first refusal to one of these!

I was put at risk of redundancy while on mat leave with DS2. My current role was being made redundant but there were still vacancies at the same pay scale. I was offered these vacancies without having to apply for them, whereas my colleagues had to go through a selection process.

Definitely review the Acas website if you haven't already. I found loads of useful info on there when I was in this situation. Thankfully my HR officer knew her stuff also so I didn't need it, but it was useful to have.

They have now withdrawn the notice of redundancy and offered me a job.
I'm relieved but could have done without the stress!

Oh and they are paying me a bonus as a reward for my loyalty?!

They have worked out they screwed up badly and are now trying to smooth things over. Take the money and enjoy the new job :)

Excellent news. Glad its sorted.

My company made massive redundancies, over 300 people in total across a number of offices, whilst I was on maternity leave. I was given a quick phone call told basically my role would be done in September but my maternity cover was employed until December.

I called ACAS who were great help but again I got left out of consultations and not giving meeting notes by my rep. I was lucky I had a close friend who was a rep for a different area who fedback everything to me.

I had big grounds for a case and was told as such by ACAS. I ended up going for a different role in the restructure and got it so never took it any further but definitely could have.

Give ACAS a call. You are protected differently because you are on mat leave. They will tell you your right and help you along the way.

Good luck.

I reckon that when they changed their mind and decided to keep the branch open, they completely forgot all about you and the fact that now they needed to give you a job regardless (more or less) rather than being able to make you redundant as part of everybody from the branch being made redundant...

Hope that your loyalty bonus was nice and big to recompense you for the stress they caused you unnecessarily due to their incompetence!