Redundancy - Unfair Dismissal

[Gupsy]

I received an email from my immediate manager inviting me to a meeting at our head office, where HR would be present. When I queried the agenda for the meeting I was informed it was a 'catch-up and nothing to worry about'. At the meeting my immediate manager and HR told me that I was at risk of redundancy.

 

This was the first I had heard about any redundancies happening within the organisation. Having read up on redundancy, the 3 step process was not followed, in that I did not receive a written letter beforehand from the employer setting out that there was a potential reudndancy situation. They gave me a letter at the meeting.

 

Furthermore, I was given only 7 hours notice before having to attend the meeting, and I was not given the right to be accompanied to this meeting.

 

I had submitted a reqest to work flexibly 3 weeks before the meeting and I believe this was one of the reasons for their decision. they had previously rejected my request, and all the reasons set out in the original rejection no longer applied.

 

At the meeting they went on to advise that there were no suitable positions within the organisation and that if I left sooner, I would receive more of a redundancy payout. I felt so rushed into a decision, and feel i was forced into leaving 3 days after the initial meeting.

 

Please help me.

 

Gupsy

[mariefab]

They gave me a letter at the meeting.

What did that letter say?

I felt so rushed into a decision, and feel i was forced into leaving 3 days after the initial meeting.

How did your employment end?

Did you resign/ sign an agreement/ what happened?

[R&J]

Need to know more about what you signed and what was in the letter.

[Gupsy]

Hi,

 

Within the the letter they thanked me for attending the meeting. They said they had placed my role at risk of redundancy. They would be going through a 30 days consultation, etc

 

My employment ended in that after the meeting, I was informed I could work from home the following day to get my head around what had happened. When I returned to the office the day after working from home, no one in the team spoke to me all day (including my managers. they did not even ask me how I was , etc). My managers then took my colleagues in meetings to explain to them about my situation (I am not fully aware of what they were told) but a few of them approached me to say that they 'knew of my situation'. I felt they had breached my data protection in releasing information without my knowledge or without even inviting me to the meeting(s). I felt extremely alone, and as no one spoke to me all day, I decided to leave sooner rather than later.

 

I never actually signed anything.

[Sidewinder]

How many others havce the same role as yours within the organisation? What were the reasons given for your position being 'at risk'? What other opportunities were discussed whereby you might remain in work?

 

Your position cannot be made redundant until the end of the consultation period. That is the reason for having consultation, so that all alternatives may be explored. It is hard to claim any breach of data protection, but it certainly adds weight to any complaint that the redundancy was prejudiced prior to the completion of the consultation period. These things are never straightforward, as much depends on the nature of the redundancy and what was actually discussed at the meeting.

 

Strangely enough when I was made redundant I was invited to a catch up meeting at head office, but at least I knew that the writing was on the wall so wasn't surprised.

[Gupsy]

Thanks for your responses.

 

There were 3 of us doing very similar roles. I was the only one selected for redundancy. When I raised my grievances, they basically told me the others were doing very different roles, which according to their CV (which a friend passed onto me) show we were all doing similar roles.

 

They told me that the role of team leader was not required anymore, and this role would essentially be managed by my manager. I accepted this, but I was not happy with the manner in which they completed the entire process.

 

During my only meeting (which I was unprepared for) they infomred me of an admin role, which they said they did not think I would be interested in. They sent me a vacancies list, which was essentially blank as they did not have any roles.

 

During the grievance they said that they did not mention my situation to others, and the reason why management did not speak with me when I returned to the office was because it was one of their busiest days, despite telling me that they were not busy, which is why my role was coming to an end.

 

There have been so many contradidctions in the entire process, which are further backed-up by their down grievance outcomes - where 1 document contradicts the other.

 

Gupsy