Should I be entitled to redundancy?

[champagnetruffleshuffle]

My employer has 2 central offices. Our office moved to the neighbouring county almost 7 years ago. We were not offered redundancy. The other office has now also been relocated to a new office (same county but similar distance) and they are being offered redundancy. We have been told we can't complain because it is over 5 years. Is that right? Can anyone on here advise me please? Thanks for your help.

Complain to whom?

The time limit to take a claim to employment tribunal is 3 months in most cases, 6 months in some.

5 years later is too late to dredge it up now. What would you even be trying to achieve if you're still working there 5 years later?

By complain I meant a grievance against management.

We were told that redundancy wasn't an option, but now staff from the other office are being offered it for the exact same situation. Those staff do the exact same job as us, just a different location.

So it has only become an issue now, because we are being treated differently.

If redundancy was offered at the time a number of us would have taken it.

My hope would be to be offered redundancy as well.

Just because they say you can't complain doesn't mean you can't complain. Are you in a union? I'd contact them for advice.

They might be offering redundancy this time because your employer needs to reduce the size of the workforce for operational reasons.

Much has happened in the last 5 years, and working practices have changed a lot.

I would assume their roles are
Redundant.

You can't assume it's exactly the same scenario. The organisation is different to how it was five years ago. They didn't offer redundancy to your peers because your roles were still needed. Clearly they don't need these roles hence redundancy offered. To rake it up now is very weird. If you want to leave, you could've left any time in the last five years instead of still stewing on this.

I’m gobsmacked that you think you can raise a grievance about this!
There is no formula legally, for what relocation triggers redundancy. It only has to be “reasonable”.

I did 2 successive moves with same company in 7 years. In miles, they were about the same. The second moved people outside of a travel zone so the cost of public transport doubled, whereas the first was within the zone so existing cost would be the same. Not the only factor, but showing you something with regards to reasonableness.

In this case, it could well be equally reasonable not to give redundancy - but this time, the company wants to reduce staff.

It sounds like your move 5 years ago wasn’t unreasonable - you just want to leave, and fancy some free money for that. Dont blame you, who wouldn’t? But, you are not going to get it over a 5 year old move!!!!

You could always ask if they are open to extending the invitation to staff at your branch, if they are keen to bring down the headcount they might take you up on it. But presumably you’ve been there a while, so quite expensive to make redundant…

Seven years after the event?! On what basis?

I've come on here to ask advice because I don't have knowledge, not to say I'm going ahead. So there is no need to be gobsmacked or find me weird.

They are definitely not looking to reduce staff or make the role redundant, they are still actively recruiting for our identical role.

Our role is pretty specific so it's hard to translate what I do to a new job that pays a well, especially as i'm a part time working wife and mother. If I'd been given redundancy, I'd have used the funds to retrain.

It seems an unfair situation that staff are now being offered something we would have wanted, so I just wanted to ask if I'd have any kind of case. It seems not.

It’s not unfair, it’s a different situation to 5 years ago. If they are currently recruiting for your role you won’t be able to be offered redundancy anyway, so it’s not worth thinking about.

I don't think it's unfair after 5 years. You don't know the details. Policy could have changed or there may be nuances.

You can complain, but not with an outcome of redundancy as your role isnt being made redundant.

You obviously won't be entitled to redundancy, but if you don't enjoy your job/role and want to leave & retrain anyway it's worth asking informally I would have thought?

What does being a wife have to do with it 😂

You can complain all you want, makes no difference, they didn’t need to offer redundancy, so didn’t, they do wish to now, so are, you aren’t going to be made redundant, so let it go.

No you can’t complain about what happened 5 years ago

It depends what your contract says. I used to manage three units, two in town and one in the next town. We were closing two and merging into one. Contracts stated if we moved the office 14 miles or more you could take redundancy if you preferred. It was 11 miles so noone was entitled. Few years later office moved to London, 60 miles and everyone took redundancy, which is what we wanted.

From a HR perspective we would only hear grievances within 3 months of the last incident so for 5 years you're waaaaaay out of time.

It may seem like the circumstances are exactly the same but I can pretty much guarantee there are underlying things happening that you won't be privvy to.