Hospitality Redundancy

[London22]

Hey!*
I work in the hospitality sector and like lots of people I have been placed at risk of redundancy because of COVID. I manage a team and have a deputy and have been told his job is safe. There are other teams that do similar work and there Managers are safe also. I asked why my Deputy is safe and was told he was still in the structure. I asked why other Manager were safe when we all do similar work as Team Managers although different products and was told my work was diminishing, but the other managers were not as much. As the work is so similar and I�ve done it before I questioned why we were not all placed at risk and put in a pool and was told to forget other teams they are similar but not similar enough. I get I have a different job title to the other managers (we all have a different one), but the work is similar across the hotel, so why shouldn�t we have all been pooled? I tried to put forward a proposal that some teams were merged and got told I can only put forward proposal that relates to my team and no others. Surely the whole thing about a redundancy consultation is that you put forward proposals to try and stop redundancies, it�s shouldn�t matter what team?*

Would love to hear your thoughts?

[ULA]

Can we help you with anything?

[London22]

Hello, how strange, I wrote a whole post, it seems to have disappeared. Yes. I hope so. So I am one of I'm sure 100's of people currently going through a redundancy consultation at work. I manage a team of people and have a deputy manager also. I have been placed at risk but my deputy has not. When I questioned this as the said they team needs to have one manager now and not 2 they said the deputy post remained in the new structure. I questioned why I was the only department head to be at risk and explained that although the areas all did different things, the department head job was so similar I felt there should be a pool, but the company don't agree and say I'm the only one with that title. I was going to put forward some suggestions on merging some team with a proposal and they told me I could only put forward a suggestion if it related to just my team. It all seems wrong, the selection too narrow and surely I should be allowed to put forward any proposals to save jobs as about 50 in total are going, whether it's just my department or other. I was told that by asking all the question and challenging I'm not engaging fully in the process. It seems wrong and was wondering what someone else thought? Thanks!

[ULA]

Unless you are in a completely unique role then in defining a selection pool your employer should take into account the following:

* They should consider including employees in the pool who undertake the same or similar roles. The roles carried out by the employees in the pool do not, however, have to be identical.
* Employees should be included where they undertake the same or similar roles in different parts of the business or on different shifts, unless there is good reason to exclude them.
* The employer needs to consider whether the work that is carried out by a group of employees interchangeable? The pool does not need to be limited to employees doing the same or similar work. If an employee can easily carry out the duties of a different role (or perhaps has done so in the past),then the selection pool could be held to be too restricted if it does not include those interchangeable roles.

So if your employer is not taking some of the above into account and being too narrow in considering who should be in the pool. As part of the consultation exercise, your employer should consult with employees about which categories of staff to to include in the selection pool. Your employer should listen to what employees say, although they don't have to agree.

[London22]

Thank you, this is what I thought, but raising my concerns has just resulted in personal attacks and they just keep saying unless there is someone else in your department with the same job title, there is no one else doing a similar job. To be honest challenging them and getting the responses I'm getting is making me ill. I got told my emails are too lengthy and when i said it was making me ill they just ignored it.

Can they say you can only put proposals forward if it solely relates to the team you are currently in? I thought the whole purpose was that you put forward proposals to save jobs and it's shouldn't matter if it includes another dept also?

[ULA]

As part of any fair redundancy process, employers should be considering not only suitable alternative positions for affected employees, but also looking at whether there is any way of avoiding those redundancies. This is an essential part of the process in order to avoid unfair dismissal claims. In doing that they should also consider any suggestions made by employees during a redundancy process.

They should take away any suggestions and give them due consideration and then come back with a response as to whether they could work, can be further considered with some adaption or they cannot be implemented and if not why that is the case.

[London22]

Thank you so much. I was really starting to doubt myself.

these are the actual words of the company

“You do not go into a pool because you fulfil a role within the business that no one else holds the job title for. If you are aware of anyone else holding the same role and responsibility as you, please let me know”

this was the response to me asking why I wasn't in a pool, as believe the skills are interchangeable with another team.

and

“your focus should be on proposals for the S team”

so here I feel they have restricted me from putting forward other proposals unless they solely relate to the S team?

I know you don't have the full text, but do my thoughts about their statements appear to indicate what I believe?

I only have the final meeting to go and as they have already said I can only forward proposals relating to S team it means I can't put forward anymore, as it would include other teams.

[London22]

Sorry the other important bit “The team within these areas will have similar skills, just like any job within the company, however there are distinctive skills and responsibilities to separate these areas“ they went on to says that the team sell different products.

i agree they do, but we all sell each other's and support each other as require too.

[ULA]

Based on the points I made in #4 and without full details then there is the potential that the pool has not taken account of:

* employees doing the same or similar work
* work that is carried out by a groups of employees that is interchangeable i.e. you all have the ability to sell each others products.