Urgent Redundancy Question

[al101uk]

Hi,

I have been with my current employer for 19 years,*

I've been at risk of redundancy for 18 months due to an office move.

A few weeks ago I was told that my current job title was no longer relevant and it needed to be changed. I accepted this, my role for the last several years has had little to do with my current job title. My manager explained that the job title was wrong and he could not find a job description for it.

It was suggested that my role be changed to a standard "Analyst" role, but that my current job be factored in to that as a specialization. He said they would sort out a contract and if I agree to it they would sort out the details.

When I looked at the contract, I realized that the Analyst role was the primary part of the job role and my actual day to day activities had been reduced to a smaller part of the job description.. On Call was a requirement and overtime/travel requirements were worded in much stronger terms. The location had been changed to "core site" rather than where I actually worked.

Given that I was at risk I explained my reservations, I was being asked to sign up to do a job I couldn't do (I would need training), with a substantial change in work/life balance and with a potential future issue if the office move went ahead I was committed to working at a "core site", rather than my actual location. I did not turn down the role, I asked that the contract be modified to cater for the issues I had, I said I would like to see my current work/life balance maintained, my location be changed back to what it is now and the contract to transition me from what I do no to the new role as I trained in to that role.

My manager said he would speak to HR and get back to me.

Last week I was informed that I was being made redundant, that they had decided that the analyst role was on the internal job board and I could apply if I liked. That they needed someone to "hit the ground running".

I asked how they had made my job role redundant without a job description and was told that they had "assumed" my activities from the job title and then added in my day to day activities. They hadn't put anything on paper.

My current role has little to do with my current job title, but it has been a full time job for years at the company, is very specialized and supports critical functions that will not be going away. The expectation seems to be that the general role will absorb my duties in some way, but that they will still need a subject matter expert.

It seems unlikely that the workload for my area of work generally will reduce (although, again, this is not factored in to my job title and I have no job description).

In addition to this my manager started his role 18 months ago and for the last 18 months my role has been primarily project work. As far as I was aware there was a large scale project about to be undertaken at the beginning of this year that hasn't happened yet. Regular day to day activities have not been carried out as a result of this project work and my area has suffered as a result.

I want to know if this sounds like a fair process and if the company are within their rights to do this without any prior information gathering as far as I can see? Or is their a case for this being an unfair redundancy process?


*

[ULA]

Have they provided a reason for the redundancy and why they no longer need someone to do the role that you undertake?

I get the impression from what you have said that there may be an issue between your job title and given that, what is perceived to be your duties as opposed to the reality of the duties you in fact perform on a daily basis. What you need to establish is whether the reason that your job is no longer required is based on the former or latter interpretation of your daily duties.

What the company needs to demonstrate is that the job with the duties that you actually perform are no longer required in order to start a redundancy process.*

[al101uk]

Thanks for the quick response. I'm thinking back and the only response I've really had to the question you pose is as per the above...**they "assumed" my activities from the job title and then added in my current day to day activities. The haven't shown why those two roles are no longer needed. Neither of my duties are going anywhere, I look after two IT systems that are both critical and core to the IT infrastructure. What they are looking to do is to absorb those duties in to my colleagues workload. My colleagues have the more general job description, in addition they will hire someone else on the same terms as my colleagues.

Their issue appears to be the fact that I haven't accepted their new job description with it's inherent change to my location, my work/life balance and many additional duties.

I guess the assumption from that is that they don't consider what I do now as a full time role.

I have my first consultation today, I will ask the question directly and see how they respond.

[al101uk]

Asked the question and was told that my specialist role was being absorbed in to the general team and that the role that was my job role is no longer a required workload of the team.

So it appears that my role is being restructured.
*

[ULA]

If your job is being restructured, the result of which means it no longer exists then yes this is potentially a redundancy situation. What your company needs to do is follow a fair process which includes consulting with you, including discussing any suitable alternative positions that would be available for you.*

Did they say anything else at your consultation meeting?*