Redundancy due to relocation

[ggabu500]

I am a disabled employee who uses a wheelchair. I have been working for my current employer for over 16 years.

I have just been informed that the office I work in is going to close down and relocate overseas.

Due to my disability and health needs, I am unable to relocate.

Can my employer make me redundant or must they keep me employed in my current location, or offer to allow me to work from home to keep me employed with them?

[Setmefree3]

Read this. It doesn’t refer to overseas relocation, but does contain information on disabilities and relocation. https://worksmart.org.uk/work-rights...iles-away-what

[ggabu500]

Read this. It doesn’t refer to overseas relocation, but does contain information on disabilities and relocation. https://worksmart.org.uk/work-rights...iles-away-what

Interesting! It may be so, that my employer cannot automatically make me redundant (as a result of me being unable to relocate) without looking at other options first e.g. allowing me to work from home.

Does anyone else have any opinions on this?

[jaguarsuk]

Ula or mariefab are better with employment things than I could offer, so sit tight and await their response(s).

[mariefab]

The time to consider alternatives to redundancies, like having employees work from home, would have been before the decision was made to close down and relocate overseas.
The protected characteristics of their employees isn't something that employers are required to take into consideration before they make a decision that will result in redundancies.

If the situation was that your employer was just going to relocate some employees it could be a reasonable adjustment to keep you out of the pool of potential employees who may be relocated because relocating would be more difficult for you.
As they are closing down a reasonable adjustment would be to give you more support than others to assist you to relocate.

[ggabu500]

The time to consider alternatives to redundancies, like having employees work from home, would have been before the decision was made to close down and relocate overseas.
The protected characteristics of their employees isn't something that employers are required to take into consideration before they make a decision that will result in redundancies.

If the situation was that your employer was just going to relocate some employees it could be a reasonable adjustment to keep you out of the pool of potential employees who may be relocated because relocating would be more difficult for you.
As they are closing down a reasonable adjustment would be to give you more support than others to assist you to relocate.

I think I need to give you a bit more detail. My ability to work from home has already been proven. I have been working from home 2 days a week for the past year, and 3 days a week in the (soon to be closed) office. Therefore, it seems that the idea of extending my home working to a full 5 days should have been considered, but it was not. This seems disproportionate and unreasonable.

Can they really just make me redundant without even giving home working more consideration?

[mariefab]

Can they really just make me redundant without even giving home working more consideration?

Yes would be the usual answer when the reason for redundancy is the closure of the office .

Redundancies are nearly always for economic reasons. Employers should consider alternatives like home working, reducing hours, cutting pay, relocating etc. before informing any employees that they are at risk of redundancy and before making a decision. But once a decision has been made to close down the workplace and relocate the jobs overseas the consideration would usually turn to the practicabilty of employees relocating.

But, there are exceptions, like force majeure situations. e.g. the person for whom a group of carers work dies.

Another potential exception, more relevant to your situation, would be if you were the only employee at that workplace.
The fact that you currently work 3 days per week at the office suggests that there are other employees and there may be a need to have some kind of base to work from.

I could be wrong about that. I don't know what kind of work you do.
Is a local office base unnecessary?
Could the work done by the office be carried out by all the current employees working from home? Perhaps remotely overseen by another UK office?