Demotion. What can I do?

[DeeBee]

Hi all. I'm wondering if anyone could advise on the following.

There has just been a restructure where I work and there have been job losses. I survived the cull but my role has been somewhat curtailed in that I now have 3 direct reports instead of 7, a layer of management has been placed between me and my most recent line manager and I am no longer on the leadership team. My title is similar to before and my salary and benefits have not been reduced....yet.

It is a toxic atmosphere to say the least and I want to leave and quickly. I am considering asking for redundancy as I have worked there 13 years and would get a sizeable amount of money.

What is the best way to go about this? Request a protected conversation to end my contract? It is my understanding that if they reduce my role, they need to offer me redundancy as an alternative so if they say no, could I threaten them with me taking an official route to resolve this such as stating I am working under protest, grievance, unfair dismissal etc?

[DeeBee]

I should add: the only job losses were in my team. No other teams were affected.

[ULA]

You state that your salary and contractual benefits have not been changed although staff reports and your place in the management structure has changed due to the reorganisation. In terms of looking at this from a contractual perspective since none of the key employment terms have changed, from what you have said, there is little you can argue on that basis. It is also hard to argue that your position it redundant, it is still there at the same pay and condition, it is just that under the new structure lines have changed as often does happen in a restructuring exercise.

You would need to be able to argue that you have had a discernible loss in your contract and given that salary and benefits are unchanged this may be difficult to prove given what you have stated.

If you are really unhappy about the reporting changes then the course of action you could take is to raise a grievance.