Redundancy - internal appeal advice please

[Remmy123]

I have just been made redundant but can give notice of an internal appeal within 5 days. My grounds of appeal wouid be based on the scoring on one of the categories.

My first consultation meeting they said they asked 3 people to give 'judgement' on my performance.

2 out of those 3 I stated I had never worked with or even met. I said that in the meeting but they said they would come back to me.

My final consultation they addressed this and they said something different from the previous week, it left me very confused. I felt like they contradicted themselves and fobbed me off.

My question is - can I go through an internal appeal on this basis? That I felt like I had been lied too? They definitely contradicted themselves.

What if they they go back and re-score me and end up with the same score I will feel very embarrassed!!

I don't want to lose my job, but I dont want to embarass myself either.

Many thanks

Yes definitely appeal if you believe they have lied. Now is not the time for embarrassment, this is your job at stake, so if they are making it up you must appeal, you only get the one chance.

You shouldn't be left confused about anything. If something they have stated isn't clear, you must speak up and say that. If they are trying to obfuscate and make it confusing, then be like a child and keep asking what, what what, why why why each time they state something until they have clarified the situation to your complete satisfaction. This is a legal process so they cannot pull the wool over your eyes, their criteria for redundancy have to 'hold water'.

Have they given you their decision in writing rather than verbally, to give you time to consider the facts, dig beneath the words and ask more questions.

What in essence did the 3 people say about your performance? On what basis did they state negative criticism of you if they never met you or worked with you. Was the criticism something that had been made known to you in your reviews with your manager? Did they have a point, or was it all completely untrue, inaccurate and made up?

I take it that your redundancy package isn't an advantageous one, to give you sufficient to be able to "take the money and run"? Sometimes that's the best option especially if they don't want you, but provided they make it worth your while.

Thanks so much great advice!

Yes I was left saying, but that's not what you said last week? As you say I felt like a child. Someone told me off the record that they scored me full marks in the category I am confused over. So the other two people that never met me must have scored me low to get to my final score. They refused to break it down and give me the individual scores.

Then in the second meeting changed thier story in how they reached that score to the previous week. Saying it wasn't 3 peoooe but a group of people 'sensed checked' the score that get had come up with. Again hang this 'group of people' I don't know.

I felt totally fobbed off.

In addition I am a job share and the job share usvt redundant - so she is now only half a role. Hey are supposed to look at alternative roles but I don't think my role is redundant?!

I'm worried that if I go to internal appeal I will just get fobbed off again 😬

Excuse my typos 😊

How have they explained your jobshare not being redundant? It's the role that is made redundant, not the person so both of you should be redundant.

Thanks - they actually haven't explained that to me at all!

They can legitimately reduce the hours to make it 1 x part time role if they claim that there is no longer sufficient work for 1 x FT. However they need to state that as part of the process.

You need to know what the scores mean ie more specifically which aspects they marked you down on and (if you don't mind knowing) what exactly those people said to make the scores low.

It is a dehumanising process, it's all about making you look bad to justify their decision in the legal process. If you feel that it would be too stressful to hear negativity about you then maybe protect your MH and accept their decision, hard though it is.

If I'm really honest, I would expect it not to come as a complete surprise to you, and that somewhere along the line it has been made known to you aspects of your performance they weren't happy with. Even if you don't agree with their judgement of you.

That's Daisychain - this is where my issue is .. I have had fabulous feedback for over 10 years, no performance issues etc so I am really confused/miffed by how this was handled.

I asked them to breakdown my scores by they said they won't so just makes it feel unfair/dodgy

Thanks for your help

You should put this in writing, definitely. Be clear that in the first meeting they said 3 people and then this changed.

Is the person doing job share with you significantly differently skilled or qualified? It sounds like what they've done is to essentially say that they now have only one role where they used to have two, and then have you both 'assessed' to determine who should get the remaining (part time) job.

Chances are that unfortunately someone (whether your boss or other) has likely decided that they want to keep the other person, and that is what this assessment truly means, and is not that likely to change. However it should be fairly done, and asking HR to clarify process is.totally reasonable and shouldn't cause you embarrassment even if the score changes, and so long as done professionally, also shouldn't damage your relationship with them if you ultimately do go and need a reference.

I would definitely appeal in the circumstances you describe, as you've got an exemplary service record.

An alternative could be, given your strong performance, to be deployed to a different role rather than being made redundant. Options such as this are appropriate to mention at your appeal as it sounds like you don't want to leave and under different circumstances there would be no reason for them to lose a valued member of staff.

This does not sound right at all. If you and your jobshare do the same work, both should have been made redundant. I'd ring ACAS for advice.

Thanks all I'll give ACAS a call

Both do not need to have been made redundant, you're being given some incorrect advice here, so it's great you're ringing ACAS.

A job share is essentially two part time jobs, and the company is entirely within their rights to decide that they only have half as much work to do, and to score the two current workers and choose one. The key issue to understand is whether they did the scoring fairly, or any other parts of the process were not properly conducted.

@Stuckforthefourthtime

How would that work unless they made both jobsharers redundant? After they did that they could the have a process to choose the candidate would stay part time but you can't make one jobshare redundant without the other unless the jobs were very different.

@KatherineJaneway there is legal guidance on these situations, it is a legitimate approach.
People sometimes think there's a special type of hire called a job share but fundamentally it's two part timers, sharing the work that could otherwise be done by one full time person. Unfortunately if OP's business only has half the work, they only need half the hours done. They can therefore choose to make both of them apply for the remaining 1 part time job, or to decide on reasonable metrics who best fits their new needs and retain that person.

It would be just the same if there were two full time people doing the same work, but the business now only needed one of them

If that is the case it should be explained to OP clearly that there is not enough work for two part timers and spelling out how the person to be made redundant will be selected. It has to be transparent, and apply to both people in the role. How long have you been there OP? Time to start kicking ass.

Was the other half of you scored as well ? Do you do exactly the same job shared ?

@Stuckforthefourthtime

Thanks for that, I had no idea they could do that to someone.

Yes she scored better by a point