Would I be made redundant in this scenario?

[Iwantmychairback]

I have worked for the same company for 17 years.
Two years ago my boss reluctantly agreed that if I could find someone to do part of my job, plus some general other admin type work, I could go part time. I found someone, trained them up over two months, then started working three days a week. Unfortunately that person had to leave after 4 months due to family problems. I found a replacement and went back to full time whilst I trained her up, again about two months. This lady lasted for 6 months before leaving due to a personality clash with the person she HAD to share an office with. Back to me being full time again! A third person was trained up by me. Now after a year she is leaving to do something totally different. I also agreed to work full time if necessary to cover holiday leave for two people in the office and did 3 month full time to cover when one of them was on long term sick. I am paid at standard rate for this ‘overtime’ and get nothing extra for doing it.
If my boss now says enough is enough and I have to go back full time, would he have to make me redundant if I said I would only work part time? I have an ‘amendment to contract’ to show my hours as being 24 per week. ( I actually work 27 but that’s another story).

I think you can only make a role redundant if the job nolonger exists. So you can't be made redundant so someone can be brought in full time for the same position.

Where I work if there is more than a 25% change in hours either up or down it's classed as a redundancy. If there's a good business reason why the job can no longer be done part time then I'd class that as a redundancy .

Its better than the alternative which is a change to terms and conditions exercise, in which case if you don't consent and there's a good enough business reason you'd be terminated with no redundancy pay.

Businesses usually find a way to do what they want to do. They employ people like me to help them do that and stay on the right side of the law. (sometimes only by a whisker, mind)

They could consult with you about a change to your terms and conditions but would need a good business reason as to why the role couldn't be done part time, split between existing team members or job share etc. Given the reasons the job share hasn't worked out are for personal reasons not because they have been unable to find someone , this will be difficult to justify. If no agreement, they could dismiss you on your current contract and offer you re employment on a full time contract. However, if you claimed unfair dismissal a tribunal would likely deem the offer of a ft contract unreasonable and you'd have a good chance. I imagine this is why they are doing as a redundancy ie the part time role does not exist but there is a new role that's full time. You would have to be offered this ft role if you wanted but if you didn't, they would issue notice of redundancy. They should tho be looking at alternatives also and also pooling any others who do the same role as you if that's the case when making a decision as to who is made redundant.

It’s not a redundancy situation - the definition of redundancy is the work you do ceasing or diminishing in that location. Needing more hours isn’t ceasing or diminishing.

However if your employer was unable to find anyone to cover the rest of the hours they could argue a good business need to increase your hours.