Redundancy / Some other substantial reason

[Liveinthepresent]

I have posted before so forgive the new thread as things are moving on.

My husband has been battling with his employer for a couple of months as they have obviously been trying to ‘manage him out’ using all the unpleasant tactics to try and unsettle him.

He has now been put at risk “either by reason of redundancy and/or some other substantial reason” due to “failure to generate sufficient new business to make your ongoing employment financially viable”

He has had no performance management issues and very limited feedback , input , support or scrutiny. He has met all financial targets.

It feels like they are still hedging their bets on the final reason for termination. Presumably they can do this as the letter has come from HR - but can anyone advise as it’s hard to know how this will play out - would appreciate anyone’s experiences of how to handle a consultation without knowing the route they will choose.

Thanks for any help .

Is he in a union? If not would strongly suggest he joins one

It’s a bit unusual to hedge bets like that in a letter. It does risk undermining the robustness of whichever option they go for- for example if redundancy was so un-clear-cut that they weren’t even sure it applied and had to hedge bets, that doesn’t give a strong argument that it’s definitely a genuine redundancy. Odd.

However that doesn’t in itself render a dismissal for whichever reason they opt for unfair. The process would involve individual consultation either way. If it’s redundancy there is a risk of involving other employees, depending on what the argument is that the role itself is redundant. Because redundancy applies to a role not an individual- the definition of redundancy is that the need for the type of work in the location in question has ceased or diminished. From what you’ve said, unless it’s about cost saving, it doesn’t sound like genuine redundancy.

SOSR they’d have to consult as well, but it would only involve him. They should explore alternatives and it should be a last resort, and should only be used when none of the other potentially fair reasons for redundancy apply. Obviously it is possible to dismiss someone for poor performance, so using SOSR is not a way of doing that without going through the necessary hoops.

How long has he worked there?

Thanks so much for the replies it’s all so stressful. Just getting any insight at all makes DH feel less out of control.

Interestingly both DH and I work for private SMEs where unions don’t seem to be a thing people do - but perhaps we should investigate.

He has been there just short of three years.
They have been quietly shedding people at
his level for pretty much the whole time and have a reputation for being quite ruthless. They are cost cutting for sure as rumour has it the numbers are bad.

He has actually raised a grievance as his line manager had recently asked him about becoming a freelance consultant out of the blue without any prior indication that there was an issue . Since then there have been a series of pressure tactics which meant we knew something was wrong but still didn’t know what they were thinking. He then got this letter from HR making intention to terminate employment clear but not really how they plan to proceed.

Would really love to know what he can do to challenge the decision though I suspect nothing can stop the inevitable.

Really really appreciate the replies

@flowery re Redundancy he works mostly with one of their major clients and projects are ongoing so I think they may feel this makes the redundancy argument unclear as the client still needs his skills and no one else can provide same support .
I wasn’t sure if that made it impossible though as presumably they could just say they no longer wanted to offer that service
To the client ? Client wouldn’t be happy ..

They could decide not to offer that service, yes, they are allowed to make that decision. They are also allowed to reduce headcount for financial reasons as long as decisions about who gets dismissed are made fairly.

Assuming he is now in consultation he can make his representations about redundancy not being genuine, ask about decision-making and selection, and then if/when he is dismissed, he should be able to appeal it.

Thanks again @flowery if they go for SOSR can he say they haven’t given him appropriate feedback and chance to improve things as he would if they were using poor performance?
Or can they just decide to dismiss him to reduce costs ?

My point is that if the reason for dismissal is poor performance, they’d have to either use conduct or capability. If using SOSR was a way to safely dismiss someone for poor performance without using a reasonable process, everyone would do it. SOSR means Some OTHER Substantial Reason, ie a reason which is not one of the existing potentially fair reasons for dismissal.

So if they use SOSR it can’t be performance.

Thanks Flowery he has gone to meet them today and is going to ask for a protected conversation in the
Hope they may be willing to negotiate a settlement and we can just get it all over with !

Get him to call ACAS for advice