Advice Please!!! Potential Redundancy

[littleknight89]

The company I work for has proposed a restructure and it seems grossly unfair!

I began working here in July 2012, during the time from then to now I worked the very best I can and I have took on board their objectives and worked towards these. I have also worked tirelessly to achieve my promotion back in 2017.

I received my potential redundancy letter during my shift on Friday and as my General manager had already warned it said I was in the pool of redundancy because my job is mapped where they will need to be a reduction in staff ie. there are two of us that are part time managers and only a position in the new structure for one. Now I understand that there may be a good business reason for this and for that part I do understand.

However where I think they have been grossly unfair is by saying that none of the new positions are flexible. I am caring for a child under the age of five so they are making the people with the least flexible hours possibly redundant. Surely this is considered discrimination and unfair redundancy. Another reason this is unfair is that full time managers doing the same job aren't considered for redundancy. It appears they are squeezing the least flexible employees out and this surely IS discrimination. Can they do this?

I want to draw your attention to this line in the letter.

We want to make sure the roles that we offer you are meaningful and provide more learning and development opportunities, providing an improved work-life balance.

How exactly are they providing an improved work-life balance to working parents? For me I have nursery to work around so the new no flexibility structure does not give an improved work-life balance it’s actually makes it impossible to fit the job around having a young daughter!

I would also like to draw your attention to these lines in the Q&As that were given to us.

All part time day roles are proposed to have fixed shifts as per the rota you have seen for each hotel.

My general manager informed me yesterday that the new part time manager role is not fixed and you must be fully flexible! It does not say that above!!

These elements will enable us to ensure anyone who has childcare arrangements to meet can plan more effectively in the future.

Someone like me already has a childcare plan so by future it seems they mean when someone else probably someone new has my job. They should know how nursery’s/ schools and child minders work if they had done any research at all. You can’t just change your arrangements with them just like that, my daughters nursery is full to capacity I have paid for and secured her place around my agreed flexible working arrangement since she was 8 months old!! It appears very discriminatory to me.

Please help I’m struggling and may lose my job meaning I’m left unable to pay my bills and I will struggle to find another job I can work around my daughter....

For the time being, they haven't stated that you are redundant, they have given you notice that your job is under threat of redundancy, so until they move it to the next stage, i.e. interview or paper-based review / assessment and decide which of you has been selected for redundancy, you are not in a position to say they are being unfair.

That said, it is appropriate for you to write to them formalising your concerns about the loss of flexibility and reminding them that it could become discriminatory if those employees with current childcare arrangements are treated less favourably during the redundancy selection process than employees without those existing obligations.

You should also reiterate your motivation to keep your job, as you have shown significant ongoing commitment to pursue your career with the company as evidenced by your 2017 promotion.

Send this to your line manager with a cc to HR.

Are you in a Union? If so definitely to get them involved (it would be worth you drafting the letter and running it by your Rep before sending it to your manager).

Also contact ACAS as they are great at advice in these situations.

Pretty much the exact same thing happened to me, advertising the new roles as ‘full time’ is not legal. I called Maternity Action who really helped me get to grips with my rights legally and I ended up coming out of my job with a really good redundancy package. It’s free to call the maternity action helpline and they really helped me so definitely worth calling them just so you know where you stand legally. maternityaction.org.uk/advice-line/

Good Luck!

They can do what they need to to make the business work. If they feel flexible working and part time is not beneficial to the business then this is not discrimatory.

It would be very hard to prove they were doing this for no other reason than they wished working parents out. Very hard. And they don't have to run their business round your needs.

I'd be very careful here, because accusing them of discrimation in reality will have you out.

You need to be sure that no other parents work there and don't use child care, and who are able to work formalised hours, before you go down that route.

Because all they have to say is well joe Helena and George manage it and it's detrimental to our business and you are fucked.

Do you wish to stay under the new terms or have redundancy?

Id be very careful here, because accusing them of discrimation in reality will have you out.

The OP doesn't need to "accuse" them of anything - she is entitled to express concerns without it turning into a full blown Discrimination case. This situation happened to a friend of mine, by flagging her concerns early in a measured and factual way during the consultation period, they took on board what she'd said and didn't make her redundant.