Consultation for Redundancy, roles already being advertised prior to consultation

[Terrier70]

I found out on Friday 2nd October that my job is no more and that the department (2 of us in the department) is being restructured and there will be two new jobs to replace ours.

We have been told the consultation process has started and what the 2 news jobs are and given the job descriptions and we can apply for them or come up with another proposal

I have worked at the company full time for 20+ years, during the meeting we were told our applications would be prioritised and when i asked when it would be advertised was told it would not become public until after the consultation period

I have since found the two jobs advertised online with the same job titles and buzz words in the job description just not he company name. They started advertising then on 17th September with a closing date of 30th Sept, and on the actually agency website it says closing date of 8th October

My question is two fold:
What can i do now?
Is it illegal for them to be advertising them before the consultation for redundancy

Any help greatly appreciated as i feel betrayed and shocked at this happening

[Terrier70]

I have now found out, that they are interviewing for the positions as I type this. Fuming is not the word.

We where told that it would not go to the public until after the consultation had finished in the meeting we had on 2nd Oct

[paulocalla]

Dear Terrier70,

My name is Paul and I am an employment law barrister. I am sorry to hear about the situation that you find yourself in. I would like to help if I can.

Redundancy is a potentially fair reason for dismissal however for the dismissal to be legally 'fair' there has to be a genuine redundancy situation (often a restructure will result in a redundancies) and the employer must follow a fair selection procedure which generally means that there should be effective consultation which is more than merely confirming that redundancies will take place. The employer should engage with you and consider alternatives to redundancies such as suitable alternative employment. It is not illegal for your employer to recruit externally for the posts but you should not be shut out from the procedure. I would recommend that you raise your objections in writing perhaps as part of the consultation or if you feel that there are wider issues at play then by way of a formal grievance. Even if redundancy is confirmed you should be offered the right to appeal the dismissal.

I offer general advice on this forum but if you require bespoke legal advice then please follow the link below and my clerks would be happy to assist on a direct access basis.