Permanent job, now told may not be here after a few years

[Chocolonely]

So I recently took a job. Open ended contract with a team of other permanent (open ended) staff. We’ve just been told we may not be here in 3 years, or we may be. They don’t know.

What are my rights here? All seems quite vague and not clear on whether to start looking for a new job or not. I’m feeling a bit stressed and sold a bit of a lie at recent interview. I gave up a permanent job to move to this one, that was advertised as permanent. Any guidance appreciated.

You have no rights until you've been employed for two years.

Thank you. I moved within the same organisation to this role, does that count as continuation of service? Would I therefore have rights?

So in 3 yrs you might be made redundant? That could happen anywhere.

I should add, I asked for a letter to confirm that I had move role but all my terms and conditions remain (I have this letter on headed paper from them)

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, I appreciate that. I just thought that they should have told me at point they offered me the role that it may not be permanent as I would thought about it differently before I gave up a more secure role etc.

Your rights are that if your role is made redundant in three years, you'll be entitled to be considered for alternatives, and to redundancy pay if that isn't an option.

Are you in a union OP?

Thanks again.

I moved within the same organisation to this role, does that count as continuation of service?

Should do.

Any of us could be made redundant in 3 years, it's just part of modern working life.

Theres no such thing as a permanent job really. Its fairly easy for an employer to make a job redundant so long as the correct due processes are followed.

3 years is doing quite well!

I’ve worked for the same company for 34 years. In that time my job has changed considerably many times and due to certain functions being centralised to other offices or roles becoming redundant I have been redeployed elsewhere in the business. I have never met a colleague, except a newby, that has only had one job in the company.

Nothing is ever permanent yet I have been on a permanent contract for 34 years!

Is this what they mean?

I'm surprised they have told you all.
On a slight side note - if it's a big organisation and you are a really good worker who gets on well with the people in charge then they'll more than likely 'find' you another role if this one finishes.
Keep an eye out for other roles too.

I worked in the same organisation for 24 years. In the last 10-12 years we were at constant threat from reorgs and redundancy. Eventually it happened.

In a new job in another company now for nearly 7 years, been through 2 lots of potential redundancy, team has been moved to different reporting line etc, as they seem to significantly reorg every 3-4 years. So far ok....

The uncertainty is horrible, but it seems to be normal now.

I'm not sure you have any rights here OP. You have been employed on a permanent basis regardless of any risk of redundancy. If you're not happy with the uncertainty then you can look around for jobs elsewhere. I'm surprise the company told you tbh.

OP could go elsewhere and get made redundant after 3 years there too! I had 3 jobs in a row, two temp one perm. Both temp roles ended up going perm. The perm role was made redundant after 8 months!

OP could go elsewhere and get made redundant after 3 years there too!

Or worse, before 2 years, when you have few rights, and no right to redundancy pay.

Do you think that any job in any company can be said to be secure over the next 3 years?

Brexit Wrexit.

I'm surprised they said this, but a permanent job is always subject to redundancy

Guessing you'd have preferred your previous role? It may not be any more secure but you should have continuity.

No job is really permanent and can be taken out of a business plan at any moment for a variety of ‘business reasons’.
You should just do the job as well as you can, get as much out of it as you can, and always have one eye on the job boards.
This sounds really negative but that’s just the job market these days, no one has a job for life anymore, people have many jobs, often across several careers.

3 years! I’ve not ever been in a job for 3 years!

I work in organisational change and have seen managers ask that a role is made redundant when we only recruited into it a couple of months ago.. which is usually a sign of poor management.

One place they knew they were going to get rid of a team of 12 people but couldn't announce it until it was signed off, meanwhile someone resigned so they recruited permanently into the role knowing they'd announce the whole team was going a short time later as they didn't want to arouse suspicions with the other team members by recruiting on a temp basis. I made it clear I thought that was a really crap thing to do to someone. Unfortunately they didn't care.