Appeal redundancy or straight to ET??

[claire1976]

I have been made redundant following maternity leave. It is a very small company and I know that an appeal will result in no change so should I go straight for an employment tribunal?

I was the companies first employee and had been there the longest. Prior to going on ML I was covering for the director who was on ML at the time and working alongside an admin lady. Whilst I was on ML one of the directors came to my house and encouraged me back to work earlier as the other director (who has been on ML) was having a limited role within the business and I was needed to cover more of her duties.

I had an appraisal in January prior to returning from ML and there was no mention of redundancy. I returned in Feb and it was clear that the other director was going to still have an active role and that my job was being shared between her and the admin lady.

Since then the admin lady has been told her job will change and at the time we were both told our jobs were safe. 3 weeks later I have been given a redundancy notice and sent home on PILON.

There has been no selection process and no criteria supplied to me. My arguement is that if there is only one admin position in the office then surely I should be fairly assessed against the admin lady as we are both doing essentially the same job. The director argues that my job title is different but our tasks have been 75% the same for the last 2 years.

I put forward suggestions of job share and reducing my hours which were completely disregarded and I now find myself out of a job!

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[R&J]

How big is the company and is it financially stable?

 

Regardless of the merits of your claim the whole thing becomes a moot point if they don't have any money to pay you, or are likely to do a pre-pack administration whereby they close down one day and open up the next day under a different name, to avoid having to pay you any Award in your favour.

[claire1976]

The company is based in the UK and has 4 employees,however 50% of the company is owned by the sister company in Germany who have not been involved in the redundancy process.

The UK company is not making a profit but the German company is international and worth millions.

I doubt they would open up under a different name as it is branded.

[R&J]

BTW you should Appeal, as the Tribunal can reduce your compenstion if you do not do so, and go straight to the ET.

 

The German company is almost certainly a separate legal entity, and there is no guarantee they would meet the liabilities of their UK operation.

 

Are you confident with the ET procedure? If not suggest instructing a no-win no-fee Solicitor to run it on your behalf.

Edited May 14, 2010 by R&J

[claire1976]

OK - so now I appealed straight away on 14th May, gave them 7 days to reply (which is the time limit they gave me to appeal) - the director who I was told to appeal to is out of the country,which they knew at the time they asked me to appeal.

What happens now? What are the potential outcomes?

If they offer me my job back (unlikely) it will be intolerable since its such a small company, there is no way we could comfortably work together.

If they assess me against the other employee they will still select me as they don't want me there!

What is the best I can hope for from all this?

I think it will lead to an ET - or is it better to use the ACAS arbitration service first since there is a huge backlog of ET's?

Sorry for all the questions. I am not relishing an ET as my ex boss is very intimidating and will argue black is white and I end up getting all flustered and not saying what I want to say so I am terrified.

I am also pregnant again and have cancer (not terminal) so want to avoid any undue stress but I really feel I have been treated unfairly and should be compensated for it.

[claire1976]

Forgot to ask also - when should I receive my P45 and wages?

Thanks

[honeybee13]

Hi claire, I hope you get some answers soon from our gurus. I can see why you'd rather involve ACAS, but I think I'm right in saying that they do mediation, so your employer would have to agree to involve them?

 

There are also various comments earlier on your thread on what other caggers recommend you should do.

 

I don't know if your illness [and I'm so pleased it's treatable] might affect things in your favour.

 

In any case, big hugs from me, HB x