Made redundant while on maternity leave

[Lina]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Thanks Flaming Parrot, will create a folder for all communications (emails, letters etc).
Celestine, thanks so much for your encouragement. I'm so glad I found this website

[mariefab]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Before your maternity leave, how many other employees were there doing the same job as you?

[Lina]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Hi mariefab, i was the only one

[mariefab]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Some more questions for you:

1.What happened to your role when you went on maternity leave? You said that 2 other employees are now doing your tasks. Have those 2 been doing this all through your leave?
Or, was someone originally hired/moved to cover your role, then at some point this was changed to giving the work to the 2 employees?
3. Do you know when the first redundancy happened?
4. At the 'consultation' did they tell you when they first started to consider making your role redundant?
5. Could you do any of the roles that are currently being advertised?

[Lina]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Hi Mariefab,

1) Yes, those 2 employees have been doing my tasks since I went on maternity leave.
2) Nobody was hired or moved to cover my role.
3) The first redundancy happened the month before mine.
4) No they didn't. But when I asked why since at the returning to work discussion everything was looking positive, so what has changed, my boss simply said that they lack work to retain my position within the company.
5) No I can't but the hiring they made a month (or two) before my redundancy, I can. But the person hired is related to the hiring manager/upper management so no chance

[Lina]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Hi [MENTION=26290]mariefab[/MENTION], just wondering if I would be getting a reply on this one? Thanks

[mariefab]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

I'm afraid that in recent years the caselaw in this area has made what would have been a slamdunk win less certain.
You need more evidence. So, I think that in order to try to get some you should appeal the decision to dismiss you.
I suggest that you write to your former employer. Something like...

Dear whoever,
I would like to appeal the decision to dismiss me by reason of redundancy.
While I understand the reasons for redundancies put forward at the meeting on xx/xx/xx I wasn't aware until that date that my role was at risk of redundancy.
I received a letter from you on xx/xx/xx announcing several new jobs. One of these in particular (put the title/job description here) was a good match for my skills. If I had known that my role was at risk of redundancy I would have applied for it immediately.
During the meeting you didn't say whether,or not, you had considered me for this or any of the other available roles.
Could you please arrange a meeting so that we can discuss any potential opportunities for me to continue working at (name of Company).
Yours etc.
(Send by recorded delivery)

They may write to you in response instead of arranging a meeting. In which case you may need to play letter/email tag to get what you need.

The sort of information that you are trying to acquire is:
Exactly when did they decide to make your role redundant?
Did they even consider you for any of the 'new' roles?
If not, why not?
Was it perhaps that, because you were absent on maternity leave, they forgot about you?
Was it because they didn't expect you to return?
Did they think you weren't suitable for the particular role? If so, why not?
etc. You get the idea.
You need to link their failure to offer you a suitable alternate role to your maternity leave.
This is because you have less than 2 years employment with them so you need to use Regulation 10 to claim automatically unfair dismissal.

[Lina]

Re: Made redundant while on maternity leave

Hi Mariefab, thanks, that's very helpful. I think i have all the evidence as per your list of questions. I will compile and share them with my lawyer. Thanks again. Sorry for the late reply though. My son has been poorly!