made redundant today

Hi Martha
What awful news for you. All the advice so far given here is very good. I hope your union will be very supportive & fight your case for you. I don't want to add to your worries but from a very bitter personal experience, unions are not always as effective at promoting our interests as we are led to believe. My advice is to keep:

everything to do with the reorganisation in a folder;

a chronology recording every single letter, phone call, email etc;

in regular contact with your union representative & keep chasing him/her up if they're slow getting back to you.

Unions will not let you access any legal advice/representation from their solicitors until all internal processes are complete as their expectation is that their local reps are well able to give knowledgeable & accurate advice & guidance to their members about employment issues. I know many are but a lot aren't & the wrong advice &/or guidance or lack of any advice &/or guidance at this stage can cost you dearly should it come to a future employment tribunal claim.

My union's solicitors have recently refused to support my ET claims as they don't think they a reasonable chance of success. Having since sought independent legal advice twice both legal firms have confirmed that is the case but only because my union reps had completely messed up their handling of the issues during the internal processes with my employer to the point of totally undermining my legitimate claims & wrecking any real chance of success!! The ET claims were made over a year ago on the advice of my union rep 'to protect my position' whilst going through the internal appeal process & the ET process started soon after.

My strong advice is to get independent legal advice ASAP with a fixed fee interview if there is no law centre near you or if CAB can't provide an interview with a solicitor. Good legal advice for an employee is needed at the outset of any employment issue to ensure to begin with. Having been repeatedly assured by my union rep that I would receive legal representation via the union for my ET claims I took it at face value. A very big & very costly mistake as having unfairly dismissed me, my employer is now wanting to charge me for the pleasure of having done so by pursuing a costs application against me - £15,000 at the last count, having employed not just a solicitor but also a barrister to represent them against just me!! Interesting to see how they intend to recoup the costs from me as I have no savings & my only source of income is ESA. Of course if I get recalled any time soon for a review of my ESA, I may not even have that.
I really do hope everything works out well for you Martha.
Best wishes
maggie

Looks like you scared your old employers Maggie - that's significant, IMHO. They've got something to hide,I'd say.

BB

Just a thought, if the jobs are in two places and you were part time, you can argue, that you could continue you old job as part time and the other job as a part ime could be offered up for interview. As to me your job is still clearly there, so they cant make you redundant when the job is there.

Sorry thats not an answer, but having had the same thing yrs ago, when i was ill, they just finished me, not even redundancy, nice from a local authority, that should know better.

Get advice from union and also independant as i felt my union made it worse. I hope you can take this on under disability dis act too. Its not easy to have this on top of your illness, so you take care of your health thats the main thing. All the v best.

martha wrote:

I didn’t know if my post would be allowed as it isn’t a 'benefit' subject, but it is a work/ disability question of sorts.

I am usually capable of researching this sort of thing, but my mind is a blur today – I haven’t even told my family yet – I can’t seem to put a sentence together.

My initial thought is discrimination, I cant do the job they have proposed due to the increased hours but the other person clearly can – but im not sure yet. They also know I am off sick for ‘treatment’ for my disability – they agreed to this when they employed me- however the interview will be when im on sick leave. I am clearly disadvantaged IMO.

Maybe tomorrow I will see things clearer. Thank you for your supportive replies.

Hi Martha,

In a way it is benefits related, otherwise your post wouldn't have been cleared.

I'm a former NHS employee, but I was not made redundant, but was retired on ill health grounds. If as others have said, you're a member of a trade union, they should be helping you since that's what you pay your membership for.

Your employer has responsibilities to treat you fairly and follow the correct process if they are considering making redundancies. They should think about any alternatives to making you redundant. Get an overview of your rights if you are facing redundancy.

Your rights if made redundant

You could also ring the Benefits Enquiry Line on 0800 882200, to enquire if you qualify for any social security benefits.

Good luck.

Pat

Hi Many, many thanks for your replies and links.
I have spent the weekend surfing the net and gathering information so I have a very good idea of my rights. I have my 1-1 consultation tomorrow.

I have discussed my case with ACAS and my union and have representation. I have also taken the advice of starting a log of events in case I end up at an Employment Tribunal.

There are two things going on – the redundancy aspect, which appears to be reasonably straightforward. However, the fact I am a disabled employee appears to be my biggest card. ( I can do the job with my skills and experience)

Where an employee in the pool for redundancy selection has a disability recognized under the Disability Discrimination Act, they should ensure that they are not put at any disadvantage on account of the application of the selection criteria and will accordingly make reasonable adjustments to the selection procedure to remove any disadvantage that the disabled employee would otherwise have.

For example when selecting, if they take in to account my sickness and absence, they can be tolerant of the fact it was for treatment for my disability.

The Disability Discrimination Act does offer me some added protection, however the use of ‘reasonable adjustment’ is varied and open to wide interpretation.

They could literally interpret it as giving me the job over a non disabled person that is a reasonable adjustment; it would be accepted as positive discrimination and is encouraged by the law. However I think they will more likely make reasonable adjustments to the interview process.

I also found a case law study where a doctor won a tribunal because she was off sick through the redundancy process:
Placing me in this “at risk” category puts pressure on me to find a new job whilst sick and that is adversely affecting my return to work post-rehabilitation.
She was in the same position as me and won personal injury damages for this fact.

I have a list of questions I have prepared for tomorrows consultation, I am ready to fight!

Don't forget it's the job that that has to be redundant, not the person.