Make to move to a different role but contractors remain in old role

[fitzy73]

So the situation is as follows:

There were 10 people in my team doing the same work in Role A.

Role A is a well established IT profession.

7 of the team were permanent, 3 were contractors.

In May 2018, my company announced that it no longer needed the 7 permanent employees in Role A. The roles was made redundant.

The company said it needed 3 people to do Role B. (Role B is not a recognised industry role but a made up bullshit "agile" job).

The 7 permanent staff were job matched to role B. We all had to attend interviews and the final 3 were selected. To be honest 4 people were happy to take redundancy so it was pretty much self selection.

The 3 contractor staff in Role A were told their contracts would be extended for 3 months.

Update to today, and the 3 contract staff have remained in post, having had their contracts extended 3 times. Further, another contractor has been added to the team and starts next week.

Is this legal?

When it actually happened, the people who were made redundant could have argued that it was not a genuine redundancy, as there was still a need for the role, and the contractors could have been let go. But nearly a year later it's too late for any of those people to claim unfair dismissal now. The fact that a new contractor has been brought in now is irrelevant. Business needs can change in 11 months, clearly, and if they didn't need more than 3 nearly a year ago, it's entirely conceivable that they do now. It doesn't mean they have to offer new vacancies to previously-redundant ex employees.

Did the company say the contractors were only staying for a set period and has now in fact renewed them longer than it claimed it would?

There was a lot of arguement that it wasn't a genuine redundancy. We were told that the contractors would be leaving within a few months.

I get that those who left have no redress. My question is what redress I have. My new role is a makey up role and I either want my old role back or to be made redundant.

You have no redress at all I’m afraid. If they recruit to your old role you can apply, but it doesn’t sound like you are redundant in any way,