Risk of Redundancy while on maternity leave

[JJnewday]

Hi There,

While on Maternity Leave I have been placed at risk of redundancy.

The Letter actually says - 'following a period of collective consultation, an objective selection criteria was agreed and applied. This resulted in you being selected for redundancy.

As you are currently on Maternity leave, we will start formal consultation with you upon your return to work, where we will formally consult with you and look to redeploy you within the company'.

I have read loads of threads on here about reg 10 and that I should have been offered one of the positions - (there were 3 positions being made into 2). I am just wondering where I stand as they have said I have been selected for redundancy but will not start consultation until I return from Maternity. By which time I will obviously not be on Maternity anymore so will not be protected under this law???

Any help will be greatly appriciated.

Are you in a union? If you are I would consult them, if not I would either join one or seek help from citizens advice.
From what I gather they shouldn't have even written to you about it until your return. I think it's horrible to let you worry about it for months. Also you're correct in getting preferential treatment for the remaining jobs but I don't know how long it lasts after you return. I suspect it might be as long as you could claim discrimination e.g. Out of 3 employees the only one to get booted out was the one who had just come back from leave. If they have begun to have these discussions at work, especially with other employees, it puts you at a disadvantage.
However, looking at what your employer has said I suspect they know this and will redeploy you. People on maternity leave have alot of protection.

Collective consultation? So this affects quite a few people and you've known about it for a while?

The first thing is to speak to your employee reps about the situation and what's going on.

There is a slight (well, not slight, pretty major) divergance of opinion amongst professionals on the meaning of Reg 10 for selection. What is clear is that you have priority for vacancies. So if three jobs were amalgamated into two so that they all changed, you have priority for the vacancies (say HR positions in training, recruitment and general became two positions both covering all three areas). If it is a headcount reduction (e.g. three accounts clerks becomes two) it is less clear that Reg 10 stops you being selected, although it still gives you priority for other vacancies.

If you are selected it is normal to consult with you whilst off, but if there are no vacancies it is common to look again at the end of your leave. you should speak to your reps about what has been agreed.

Thanks Girls for the advise - Is Flowerybeanbag still on these forums? does anyone know?

Yes. She'll probably say the same as me, roughly. We both work in the area and we normally agree .

What Ribena said.

As long as you've been involved in the collective consultation process so far, then if there isn't a role available now, consulting with you again individually once you are due to return is fine - the alternative would be confirming your redundancy now. Make sure you are kept in the loop about any developments between now and then so that if any roles come up you know about it.

Whether reg 10 definitely applies to you in terms of the 2 roles isn't possible to say from the information you've given. Often if the number of roles is reduced, it's part of a restructuring so that the jobs in the new structure will be different in some way, in which case I'd say definitely you should be offered one of the new jobs as they are essentially vacancies unless and until 2 of the 3 candidates are allocated them. (Some would disagree with me and say to be offered a job over and above someone else it must be a completely different job.)

If there's been collective consultation is that with a union? It's something they should be looking into for you really.

Thanks Girls,

Yes it did affect quite a few people, 2 different positions, both reducing the amount of people doing the roles.

I will outline exactly what happened and what I want to happen going forward and hopefully I will not bore you too much and you may be able to offer some help.

I was signed off of work with High Blood Pressure on the 8th of May.

14th May I received a letter saying That following a New UK structure for the company and a business team being being disbanded their is a need to intergrate the team and restructure.

Affected employees (including myself) would go into a collective consultation process with representatives from the Employee National forum......This was basically a forum that we would raise any questions to. Which I did, (incidentelly I was very annoyed about this as questions I raised were published and answered on an email along with everyone elses. They were obvious that the questions came from me as I am the only part time worker - these answers were published to people that at the time worked for me).

The letter then goes on to say Following the collective consultation process should an employee be put at risk of redundancy, a period of individual consultation will commence with your line manager and HR.

This Person turned out to be me

There were 3 of us doing these roles - they have not changed the job title - there were still three roles available but following the dissolving of the other department it was deemed that 1 of these people would map into these 3 roles (this person had a different job title at the time) hence 4 people into 3 roles. (This person still had to go through same process as the rest of us) As I said I a was part time all other 3 full time employees.

The selection Criteria was to be based on appraisals, sickness and 70% on a presentation that you would be given 1 days notice to prepare. I spoke to the doctors about this and they said to avoid stress - I would find this very stressful

I asked the following questions of the consultative forum

If I am off sick and unable to take part in the selection process what happens?
answer - Selection Criteria will be applied and the decision communicated accordingly.

I currently work part time - If they make my current position full time, will I be offered a part time alternative?
answer - the positions moving forward are not yet fully defined, this will be considered on an individual basis if required.

I made clear that I would find the presentation process extremely stressful (although never in writing)

Anyway they changed the selection criteria and lumped the 70% presentation onto the appraisal grade.

I believe as the person doing this was the person who did the appraisals he would have known who was going before even looking at the appraisals.

Incidentelly my appraisal was done by a person I had worked for for about 5 months. One of the the people had there appraisal done by someone else another was new to the company and had only worked there for a few months.

Funnily enough after I had been told I was selected for redundancy I received an e-mail asking me to sign of my appraisal if I agreed with the grades? Haha obviously I didn't I was not going to sign off something that effectively made me redundant.

I went on Maternity leave 8th June
Advised I was selected for Redundancy 11th June.

While I have been on maternity I have not be told about any suitable roles. Infact I have not been contacted at all, at he end of my 6montth, before I extended I phoned my manager to see if there were any suitable jobs for me.

Anyone still with me or have you fallen asleep?

I loved this company I have worked there for 15 years and was very loyal. It saddens me that I am in this situation, but I am. I do not now want to return to this company but I can not accept the redundancy they have offered as it is statutory only and will not keep me going for long, I was the highest earner in our family and we could not manage for long.

What I want to know is If I take them to a tribunal have I a case? I want them to make me what I consider a more reasonable offer and I will walk away? How likely is this?

I am happy to pay to get legal advised but can't really afford to do it if they are going to say its not worth it you won't get much.

Hope this makes sense and that you can offer me some help

Can anyone offer any further help?

Right, I am afraid you are not going to like my answers much.

Leaving aside the vexed issue of whether you can select a woman on maternity leave at all, the selection process actually sounds fine to me. I'm still not quite clear on whether it was actually collective consultation in the legal sense (meaning 20 or more redundancies per location) or whether they consult with the works council as a matter of policy. Either way, it is very hard to complain about selection criteria which have been agreed with a committee of employee reps. They haven't been devised to target you or intentionally unfairly (presumably, if they were used for a number of roles). They responded to your questions about being unable to present and said how they would adjust the process. There is nothing inherently wrong with appraisals being used or having been done by different people. It is unfortunate that they published answers that you felt identified you. Were you told in advance that the answers would be published? If so, did you request that yours weren't?

In terms of your own appraisal, you imply but don't actually say that you disagree with your appraisal. Do you? what's wrong with it? When was it done? Did you raise this at the time of the appraisal (I know you refused to sign it after selection, but signing it is basically paperwork. It's what you say at the time that really counts)? It's also a long time (9 months) since you were notified you were selected. Did you complain then?

The issue then is whether you should have been offered any of the vacancies. It sounds as though your situation is a headcount reduction in that the jobs that remained were not changed. As we explained above, there is a possible argument that even then you should have been given the role. However, that would be a test case.

You say that you haven't been told about any roles in the last few months. This is the bit that gets my alarm bells ringing if it's a big employer. Have there not been any roles at all? What did HR say when you contacted them? If there have been jobs and you haven't been offered them then that's where you get a potential case.

What's happening now? Are there any jobs now that your maternity leave is coming to an end?

In a hurry but agree with Ribena.

Fine to use your appraisal for selection. If you disagree with the rating you were given hopefully you appealed it at the time and gave evidence as to why you disagree with it?

It's not clear whether you think your appraisal was done by the wrong person. Was it your line manager or not? The fact that he/she had been there for 5 months doesn't necessarily mean he/she isn't in a position to conduct your appraisal, as it's perfectly possible to get feedback from others regarding performance in the previous few months.

But any issues with your appraisal should have been raised and dealt with at the time.

The same applies to your redundancy selection really - I'd missed how long ago it was. Did you make any complaint at all about how things had been handled at the time? Very difficult to suddenly decide months down the line that actually you think the process was unfair.

I agree with Ribena that unless there really have been absolutely no vacancies suitable for you in the whole company since your post was confirmed as redundant, you may have a case there. Do you have access to an internal vacancy board or similar, have you been monitoring it during your maternity leave?

Oh No - Sounds like I should have done something at the time! It was about 10months ago now! But to be honest I felt too poorly and then I had my Baby 4 weeks early and then that sort of took over my life.

I always thought if they didn't offer me a job that was suitable when I was due to go back I would be able to say that I was going to raise a grievance about the 'reg 10' rule. Then they may revise my redundancy package and we would all be happy.

I have a company phone and Laptop so can dial in to the job vacancies if I wanted to, They have never asked if I will be doing this and too be honest I don't see why I should have to if I am on Maternity - is it down to me then?

It is a very large company - so there must have been some vacancies that could have been suitable, to be honest I thought they would be sending them to me, I don't really want to alert them to this now as they will start sending then I won't even be able to raise that as a grievance.

Crap, Crap Crap!!

What do you suggest then girls, do you think I should cut my losses? It seems so unfair to have worked somewhere so long and then be offered a redundancy package 1/8 of your annual salary.

Some of the other questions you asked:

They called it a collective consultation it affected a team of 29 which they reduced to 24. So only 5 redundancies. 1 from management 4 from the level below.

I did contest areas of my appraisal that were then changed; I would have argued other points if I knew that it would play such an important part in he coming months.

I still have not been told about any jobs, except form by a friend who works there, although what is classed as suitable, does it have to be a part time job on the same pay grade for them to consider it suitable, because I would imagine they are few and far between.

Just wanted to say thank you for taking to time to help me out on this, must be very time consuming for you girls - I do really appreciate it.

All is not lost on Reg 10. As we said, the Reg 10 on selection is a bit confused, but Reg 10 is very clear that you should have been offered any suitable alternative vacancies. The onus is not on you to find them. HR should have been calling or emailing you and saying "look, X has gone onto the job board, take a look", or whatever. Also, the obligation to redeploy you has continued throughout your leave, and it sounds like they haven't been looking until your return, so they may have slipped up there.

What is your preferred outcome for this? If they can find you a role, do you want it? If you want to go, keep schtoom for now and then kick up a fuss that not one single job has been offered to you. If you want to stay, get proactive and ask HR what's out there.

A job wouldn't have to be advertised as part time to be suitable. What would normally happen is that most would be advertised as full time, but with HR willing to talk about a request for that to be converted into pt (i.e. the 'suitable' bit is normally around the duties, then you see if the hours can be made to fit).

The appraisal stuff is annoying, but others could probably say the same about their appraisals...

Not up to you to check for vacancies, no. Just makes it easier to demonstrate they've not fulfilled their obligations if you can actually point to specific vacancies you were not offered, rather than speculating that there must have been something. It's not just about sending vacancies anyway, they are supposed to offer you something.

Sounds like you might prefer to walk away with a bit more than you've been offered, in which case probably best to make a fuss at the end as Ribena says.