Redundancy appeal

[Problemwithworkman]

Hello, I worked for small charity and there have been some strange behaviour recently from the board saying all of us (under 10 employees) are redundant but they are opening again in 3 months wirh no need for us. I want to appeal and wondered if anyone could take a look at my letter...is it too detailed? Should I keep it brief? Note that we do not have access to bank account etc, another office pick up the company card receipts and reconciles. They are not redundant. Many thanks*
Dear xxx I am writing to formally appeal against the decision taken on xxx to make my role redundant. My reason for appeal is unfair dismissal and consultation process. I was informed that I must attend an 'employment meeting' on xxx where I was told we were entering consultation period for redundancy and would meet again on xxx 7 days later. Despite suggestions being 'welcomed' during the consultation the board seemed unsure how to address these and then advised me to submit them by email within a couple of days. I did so, and the receipt was acknowledged. The consultation end date was then changed and I was asked by email to attend a meeting on xxx (3 weeks later).* The last line of the email stated 'available to meet with us if necessary as we continue to investigate the discrepancies in night shelter finances'. I had no prior knowledge of financial discrepancies and thought that this was a redundancy consultation. As far as I am aware the police and Charity Commission have still not been informed of financial discrepancies. No evidence has been produced and the board have been evasive when asked for a figure. I asked on xxx (final meeting date) if there is a discrepancy and was told yes, a considerable amount and that the board has no idea where this money is. Also, despite providing ideas to avoid redundancy I do not think these were given due consideration, particularly for re-engagement or employment with pay freeze until you open again in April. At the meeting when pushed to confirm if upon reopening none of the staff or their skills will be required the board confirmed and said we will be reopening but do not require any of you. The offer of fundraising, increasing revenue, staff pay freeze and cost cutting ideas appear to have been completely disregarded. I would be grateful if you could provide a copy of my reference as soon as*possible by email along with copy of employment contract, employee handbook, employee policies and procedures along with the redundancy procedure and your whistleblowing policy. Yours sincerely,

[Amethyst]

I'll tag Ula for you who should be able to give you some pointers.

Getting rid of all your staff due to discrepancies in finances is an entirely different thing to making people redundant. It doesn't sound like they are accusing you or your colleagues of anything, however if they do intend to close down and reopen in 3 months, and are staying under the same company/charity, then they'd have to re-employ staff to take over your positions - which thus means you aren't redundant. However it's not my area of knowledge so see what Ula says when she's about later on. Hopefully these questions will help with that ( of course they might be entirely irrelevant being there were less than 20 employees - but should give a better picture of the situation )

Can you tell us how long you have been an employee for the charity ? ( and if you know, the length of service of the others who were also 'made redundant alongside you)
From when they first invited you to a meeting to discuss redundancy to your last day of work, how long was it ? ( from your post it sounds like 4 weeks from notice to the final meeting?)
Did they offer any alternative employment? ( eg is there another night shelter in the locality run by the charity that you could have moved to )
What was your notice period under your contract ?
Did they pay you any redundancy pay / notice / holiday pay etc ?

[Problemwithworkman]

Thank you Amethyst, I think colleagues 6 years and 3 years. I am just under 2 years but still want to send appeal letter due to way being treated. Redundancy notice given Friday 13th Dec and then confirmed Mon 6th Jan. Payment in lieu of notice. New exec director employed in Summer resigned last week after 5 months, effective immediately. All shelter staff redundant. Next door is rented to charity which has temp winter shelter in local churches that usually closed end of March which timing wise makes sense with what board are saying to us. Know that they are in there this week using it in day and apparently having maybe one overnight a week. Their behaviour to do it right on Christmas and make us force guests out by 23rd December is juat appalling and could have been avoided. They have been very cloak and dagger, no big public statement just sent email to some volunteers. No statement to council, who obviously were paying housing benefit to charity, still accepting donations etc. I have meeting in one week with local MP about their conduct as a charity and affect on the local community. Our deadline for appeal is Mon 20th so wanted to draft letter to show we aren't just taking it. In the summer I was told to stop doing so much community work fundraising, donations and raising awareness etc. Seems like they knew and were winding it down.

There has been no alternative employment offered, no mention of accepting us working for free or reduced hour or pay freeze. They did not even ask about our other skills that could be transferable, we all come from different lines of work originally and were working more than our hours doing different roles because we absolutely loved it so there are a lot of deep rooted feelings and heartbreak involved so desperately trying remain professional. This is the only place they run. None of us have contracts. We all thought the meeting on 13th Dec was to finally give us contracts!

*

[ULA]

Hi, I am sorry to hear of the situation, particularly given the good work that is being done.

The situation does appear to be confused as to whether there is a concern about the conduct of the staff and possible involvement in the financial irregularities if so, then that should be stated and an investigation carried out. However if the financial situation has led to the fact that the charity does not have the funds to continue its operation and pay staff then this would be a redundancy situation. If the charity was to “open up” again in 3 months’ time then it could offer the ex-employee their role back if they were the same position or an alternative but the charity is under no obligation to offer a redundant employee their job back, it is entitled to recruit someone else instead.

In regard to you not being given a contract or statement of particulars you cannot bring a free-standing claim if you have not been given a contract but you can add a claim relating to a failure to receive a statement of employment particulars to another claim issued in an Employment Tribunal. The penalty on employers if the Tribunal agrees that no statement of employment particulars was given or if the statement did not include all the necessary information is between two and four weeks’ gross pay subject to the statutory cap. However, you would only be successful with this claim if your were successful with the other part of the claim as well.

In regard to your specific circumstances then unfortunately redundancy is a form of dismissal and since you have less than two years’ service you can be “fairly dismisses” unless you can prove discrimination. By all means you can appeal the decision on the basis of process but given what you have said if that appeal is not upheld then you would not be able to bring an unfair dismissal claim.
*

[Problemwithworkman]

Thank you so much Ula, so I could still appeal about the consultation process and unfair dismissal but could not go to tribunal about unfair dismissal alone however my colleagues would be able to as more than 2 years service? I don't think they considered raising funds as part of consultation process and I couldn't get a straight answer about how much they needed or how/how much financial discrepancies came about.* Perhaps aa they didn't want funds available for this period and wanted to shut down so could look at a merger. I want to ensure any reference is correct and get to the bottom of what was meant by financial discrepancies as rumours in our area of work could be extremely damaging to myself and colleagues

[ULA]

Given from what you have said there is no question mark over discrimination then unfortunately you would not be able to bring a claim as you have less than 2 years service.

An employer is not obliged to give a reference but it may give you some peace of mind if you can get them to agree the wording of any future reference.
I think you need to try and establish that you, as an individual, are not being implicated in any financial regularities and that any reference will reflect that the reason for the termination of your employment is due to redundancy.

I am not saying categorically your colleagues could raise an unfair dismissal claim I would need to know more details in regard to their specific consultation process and in that regard they may need to post up their own threads here on LegalBeagles. *

[ULA]

I have made some amendments to your appeal letter, please feel free to amend or revert to your original draft.

Dear xxx

I am writing to formally appeal against the decision taken on xxx to make my role redundant. My reason for appeal is due to the lack of consideration taken during the consultation process to the suggestions that have been proposed.

I was informed that I must attend an 'employment meeting' on xxx where I was told we were entering a consultation period for redundancy and would meet again on xxx 7 days later. Despite suggestions being 'welcomed' during the consultation the board seemed unsure how to address these and then advised me to submit them by email within a couple of days. I did so, and the receipt was acknowledged. The consultation end date was then changed and I was asked by email to attend a meeting on xxx (3 weeks later).

Despite providing ideas to avoid redundancy I do not think these were given due consideration, particularly for re-engagement when you open again in April or continued employment with a pay freeze until that time. At the meeting when pushed to confirm if upon re-opening any of the staff or their skills will be required the board confirmed and said we will be re-opening but do not require any of you. There has been no information as to why we will not be required or how the facility will be staffed on re-opening. The offer of fundraising, increasing revenue, staff pay freeze and cost cutting ideas appear to have been completely disregarded and no reasons provided as to why they are not acceptable considerations.

What is also concerning and I would like to raise as part of this appeal is that in the last line of the email dated xxx it stated 'available to meet with us if necessary as we continue to investigate the discrepancies in night shelter finances'. I had no prior knowledge of financial discrepancies and thought that this was a redundancy consultation. As far as I am aware the police and Charity Commission have still not been informed of financial discrepancies. No evidence has been produced and the board have been evasive when asked for a figure. I asked on xxx (final meeting date) if there is a discrepancy and was told yes, a considerable amount and that the board has no idea where this money is. I would like clarification as to:

1. Whether the financial discrepancies have led to the redundancies we are now facing?
2. Whether there is any belief that I have been personally responsible for these discrepancies and if so, what evidence do you have to that fact?

In addition, I would be grateful if you could provide a copy of my employment contract, employee handbook, employee policies and procedures along with the redundancy procedure and your whistleblowing policy.

If I am to be dismissed on the grounds of redundancy, I would like to request a copy of an agreed form of words reference that will be used in any future reference request.

Yours sincerely,


*

[Problemwithworkman]

Thank you, really appreciate your help with everything. Fingers crossed I get some answers soon!

[ULA]

Hope it helps and please come back and update us on what happens.
*

[Problemwithworkman]

Hello Ula*I have finally received a reply today. I have also been to local MP who was shocked and is trying to speak to the board about mismanagement. Here is the reply I received in response to my appeal...Thank you for your e-mail making your appeal against the decision of redundancy from xxx.
As you will have been made aware, the reasons that the project has had to embark on significant and unavoidable change is due to:
- Our income levels no longer cover our costs and reserves diminishing quickly
- Our partnerships with churches have declined
- Our volunteer base is not sustainable, with an over-reliance on existing guests
- Our providers have increased their services and we want to redefine our dedicated role in meeting the needs of the homeless
- We want to re-point our faith-based ethos.
Careful and detailed consideration has been given to your suggestions offered in respect of the first of these reasons and as relates to xxx financial position. Whilst potentially making some financial contributions towards savings, these would have been insufficient to bridge the widening financial gap. In certain instances some of the suggestions would have been detrimental to the very care we exist to offer. There were also other real and important concerns, as outlined above and indicated in the redundancy process, that have had to be taken into full and serious consideration.
There was no alternative option for the future of JOEL but to make your post redundant and so your appeal is rejected.
Regarding other matters raised in your letter:
(1) In line with normal practice, any future requests for employment references would be purely factual advising the dates of employment (if requested) and that the sole reason for terminating your contract was redundancy.
(2) As a small employer, we are not required to have an employee handbook. We are required, however, to have policies relating to Health and Safety, Disciplinary and Dismissal and Grievance. Please let me know if you wish me to send a copy of these policies.
(3) I am unable at present to send your employment contract for which I apologise. I will forward it to you as soon as we have completed the document organisation task that is being undertaken at present.
Yours, with appreciation for all the good work that you have done on behalf of xxx

[ULA]

Thanks for the update and I hope that your MP keeps in contact with you about any progress.*

At least they have given some confirmation about what they will put in your reference which is just factual and quite common for an employer to do. Not sure what a document organisation task is but they should easily be able to locate your contract, so if it is important for you to still get a copy then you will need to follow this up.*

[Problemwithworkman]

Hi Ula*
thank you for your help, I wonder if you could read the following and advise? Would I be able to now involve ACAS? I am angry that the directors and the vicar have allowed rumours to spread throughout the local community when we did nothing wrong and did not contact us to admit there was an investigation and they found nothing. The missing £600 was mentioned in our redundancy meeting back in December and we all stated that we knew the vicar had spent this on a copy credit card on a dishwasher for the church, not on anything for the night shelter. We discovered this when an email receipt was sent to the shelter*email address by mistake.
The vicar (X), who was due to retire in another 18 months, has now stood down from the board and brought forward his retirement. He will leave the parish within 6 months. The Executive Director, who was employed for 5 months, coincidentally she started around*the time the charity began to obviously stop us from community relations/volunteer recruitment/accepting food donations/fundraising, resigned with immediate effect 2 days after we were told we had reached the end of the consultation and would be redundant.
Our MP told us to try and get her to talk. She refused, saying she has had to distance herself from the charity and remove herself from all social media.
Back in mid January the vicar (X) sent the following email to my ex boss (A) after he had contacted the vicar really distressed at how we were being treated. The second email is from the board (Y and Z) who recently admitted there was an investigation and that it had closed (after my ex boss kept trying to speak to one of them and pushed*them into contact with the*threat of involving solicitors).

Dear A,
I, too, am extremely sad for the way things have unravelled in these last few months and so I share your heartache, mental and emotional turmoil and the sad manner of departing. I, like you, would never have imagined how hard the parting could be. The redundancy programme became inevitable after the rapid dissipation of our funds (whether mismanaged and/or stolen) bringing us towards near insolvency*
In the end it was the kindest way to deal with the loss of funds, the mismanagement of our resources and loss of faith and trust.
There is no offer of a job interview as there presently is not even the prospect of a job there, and I would understandable discourage you from any legal challenge as no one is a winner and the cost of it emotionally and financially would most likely hurt most those who for so long you have been seeking to protect.
I want to personally thank you for all your drive, passion and enthusiasm for the work.
I would be happy to provide a reference as and when it became appropriate, just be in touch if one is required.
Yours,
X (VICAR)

Dear A
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
I am writing further to previous correspondence with X [vicar] and me about your
employment reference. I apologise for the length of this message.
Your said in your recent email to X: “I am seeking to receive a letter or statement saying
that there is no suspicion of wrongdoing by myself. Also I would like a reference sent to me
that does not contain anything detrimental to me and shows a true reflection of what I
actually achieved at *******”
We are sorry that this is causing you distress and I hope we can sort this out for you.
The primary thing to say is that none of the directors of ****** believe
that you stole or misappropriated funds, nor that you conducted any other act of
malfeasance. We do not think you are a thief in any way. We are happy to state this overtly
in any reference if that is helpful or you. The public messages we have issued have never
mentioned or hinted at such acts by you. Neither have the directors made public the internal
investigation into financial anomalies which we conducted before Christmas, which is now
closed.
We are happy to give you a letter of appreciation at the end of employment. The letters
relating to redundancy are necessarily formal but we can provide you with a letter
appreciating all that you achieved, i.e. you built effective teams, engaged local support, and
facilitated numerous people back onto their feet or onto the next stage of the journey. You
showed huge dedication, strength and resilience in your work.
We can use these words, together with your working dates and the fact that your contract
was terminated only through redundancy. We can also state that we have no reason to
believe that you have ever taken money from ****** or committed any act of malfeasance.
Turning to the investigation, we appreciate that we have not said much to you so far. We did
conduct an investigation into financial and other anomalies that we became aware of, and
that included asking you and your colleagues about those anomalies. At the time we weren’t
sure what we would find, but we knew that there was a shortfall of more than £600 in the
night shelter cash records. There was also a significant and unaccountable increase in
Night Shelter expenses in the second half of the year and some unusual purchases on the
shelter debit card, which was held by you.

As a charitable company, you know that we had an obligation to investigate these anomalies
to rule out theft or other malfeasance and identify whether process/control systems needed*to be improved. We ran this in parallel with the redundancy process. As part of our fact-finding, we asked you and your colleagues to help us understand these anomalies. You described to us some of the circumstances that made petty cash more complicated than in a
straightforward office and the way that you managed cash personally. You probably*remember some of your answers. Inevitably we had to ask you directly if you had taken any money, uncomfortable and unpleasant as that was for all of us. You reassured us that would never do that. Until we concluded the investigation we had to keep an open mind, which you*will appreciate from your own professional experience. This made it awkward when you*asked Y and I if we believed you had ever taken money because we couldn’t give you*the assurance we both wanted to.*We raised a number of other points with you and your colleagues (for example control of the*shelter debit card, authorisation of fuel spend) which you also probably remember. After*considering all the material we had heard and analysed, we closed our investigation,confident that you were entirely honest in your dealings with ****** money and other*resources. We ascribed the anomalies to the need for more robust end-to-end systems,*processes and controls that had evolved over the years since the night shelter had*developed.
Please be assured that the decision to close the shelter and make your role redundant was
not caused by these issues. As we have stated more than once, our unrestricted income
was not keeping up with our costs, the number of volunteers was becoming unsustainable,
our relationships with local churches had declined, the strength of other service providers
meant that we needed to redefine our own service offering and we wanted to re-point our
faith-based ethos. All this meant that we needed a new model of working.
Finally, and this may not be easy for you to believe, but we all genuinely want you to find
satisfying alternative employment. We have great respect for what you achieved over the
years. We all wish the circumstances were different. I hope that the clarifications and
reassurances I have given will enable you to move forward positively.
If you would find the letter of appreciation helpful , I will have one prepared and signed. You
will be able to use this to supplement our standard reference which will state your job role,
length of employment, reason for terminating the job (i.e. redundancy) and, if you wish, that
we have no reason to believe that you were involved in any act of theft or misappropriation
of funds or other act of malfeasance .
Yours sincerely,
Z
For the Directors
*

[ULA]

I am really sorry but as I have previously stated, since you have less than the qualifying length of service i.e. 2 years and there is nothing in what you have posted that would lead me to think there is any discrimination, then you would not be able to pursue this further via ACAS.*