10 years extra resposibility

[tickled_pink]

I have been working for a company for over 22 years, for the last 10 years I have been taking on extra responsibilty which was completely different to my contracted role.

These responsibilities were initially equal to 50-50 of my time but over the 10 years grew until all of my time was spent on the other role.

2 years ago, we were informed a merger with another company was taking place and various redundancies occurred. I was asked to continue the other role and offered a Secondment for 2 years as there was no-one else with the skills, however in the other company there was an unfilled, official post but a lower grade to myself. 8 months into the Secondment, I started maternity leave. With 8 months left on the Secondment I returned on a part time basis, the other post has been filled internally without advertisement (now the same grade) and my Secondment effectively terminated and I am now expected to return to my original role that I have not been doing at all for the last 3 years.

My question – is there any part of employment law that protects my role based on the responsibilities for the last 10 years rather than job title?

I do not want to return to my old role and would prefer redundancy.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[ericsbrother]

In short, no. Your acceptance of the job function and responsibilites mean that the 2 positions have been treated equally and you have basically accepted that they are in effect interchangable. As for wanting redundancy, there is a position on offer that you have the skills to do so what is redundant? They are not shedding staff or making organisational changes or making the role different in the skills needed to perform it so there is no reason to make you redundant.

You clearly have skill sets that are useful to the company so try discussing job share with the new incumbent of the role you have done and see if they want to do what you are now expected to do say 2 days a week whilst you do the other 3. If they see the possibility of advancement by doing that you can both suggest it to your management but I cant see that you have much to support a request for being made redundant.

[tickled_pink]

Hi Ericsbrother, thanks very much for your reply. I didn't go into all the details in the above post, but we have been through organisational change. My official role was reviewed in 2013, I applied for redundancy but was asked to withdraw the application and offered the Secondment, which I was told was the best they could offer as the open post in the other company was a lower grade. The team I was seconded to went through organisational change whilst I was off and they did not include my 'unofficial' role in this and slotted a different (full time) person, the role profile is exactly my 'unofficial' duties for the last 10 years. I was recently surprised to discover the actual grade of the role was equivalent to mine.

I have heard that maybe I had 'an out-dated job description' and therefore treated incorrectly during the organisational change in the first place.

Do you think that makes any difference?

[ericsbrother]

No, you continued to work and draw a salary. you also changed your hours so there was plenty of opportunity to raise this previously if it really was a job change not covered by the organisational changes mentioned.

They have basically given you your job back. As you got the same pay all along you cannot argue unequal treatment.

A job description is not the same as a contract of employment but is a contract nonetheless. There are implied obligations that form part of the overall employment terms and you have enjoyed flexibility over the years so there is little to complain about when you are asked to do the job you were employed to do. The salary scale seems to reflect this position.

Best bet is to try and arrange something that gives you a bit of variety if you dont like the role but you arent going to get redundancy as the job is there and you are doing it as you used to and have always been paid to do.