Selection for Redundancy

[HustleRussell]

Good afternoon all, another redundancy thread;

I am currently serving notice but I am challenging my selection for redundancy as I don't believe it fair.

I was placed at risk due to the circumstances of the project I was on while other people with my job title are keeping their jobs as they happened to be on a project which had a longer duration.

My argument is that it would be possible for me to take up those roles on other projects without difficulty as all people with my job title do ultimately the same job, and that the company has a responsibility to base their redundancy selection on objective performance based criteria rather than convenience / circumstance.

A peer review was carried out which rated me as second highest out of the eight in my working group, however I am currently one of four who are either 'at risk' or on working notice.

I have been repeatedly told that I am being made redundant as the project I am currently working on is ending.

I have been told that I was among the first to be identified as 'at risk' because of my long service (longest notice period).

Hence my redundancy is not based at all upon performance, peer review or any objective criteria.

It seems very wrong that my length of service is working against me in this case, i.e. I was put up for redundancy earliest as I had the longest notice period.

I am challenging this based on the lack of objectivity and the fact that my high peer review score appears to have been entirely ignored, however do I also have an argument that my length of notice should not work against me this way i.e. identify me as a priority to place at risk. I don't believe it should be 'First In First Out'

Cheers

[edc]

You clearly want to stay so sorry that you are in a difficult situation.

The selection criteria don't have to be based on performance metrics. The law doesn't specify the criteria but they do have to be fair and objective.

If you are going to appeal make sure you have a good basis and grounds for appeal. You may want to get some advice to increase your chances of success.

[mondeoman]

If I was your boss, and I knew your project was coming to an end / at risk, and other projects were safe, then sorry, but yes, you'd be first in line for redundancy, as your job is no longer required.

Redundancy is position based, not person based, this is something that most people forget.

Unless your company has other projects, with vacancies, that they can move you on to, or are prepared to make up a position for you, then I'd suggest that you get your CV polished and start looking for something else.

With 20 years service, you should be in for a decent pay-out as well.

Its not a nice situation to find yourself in, and you have my sympathy, but its time to be realistic and get yourself into a strong position for the future.

[edc]

Do those on other projects effectively perform the same work and role albeit for different projects or customers? Do you have the same job descriptions? Were those others considered in the same pool as you or was the scoring completed in such a way that those other projects carried more weight during the selection?

There could be an argument based on the pooling. You should seek some advice as the delta between your potential unfair selection and an unfair dismissal award vs your redundancy payment may be small if you have a high salary and long length of service. This would be the exposure to the company.

[HustleRussell]

edc said:

Do those on other projects effectively perform the same work and role albeit for different projects or customers? Do you have the same job descriptions? Were those others considered in the same pool as you or was the scoring completed in such a way that those other projects carried more weight during the selection?

There could be an argument based on the pooling. You should seek some advice as the delta between your potential unfair selection and an unfair dismissal award vs your redundancy payment may be small if you have a high salary and long length of service. This would be the exposure to the company.

Yes, this is the nature of my grievance. My salary is below the higher rate tax threshold and my length of service is a little over 10 years.

[quinny100]

Why would you want to work for an employer who does not want you? They could easily accept your appeal and manage you out door with no redundancy payment a few months down the line if they wanted to do so.

The fact you could work on another project doesn't compel the employer to pool across projects. Why would/shoild they move people around if the customer is happy? You might be able to do the work but there will always be some degree of disruption caused by moving people.

Take the money, don't take it personally and start looking for something else.

[xyz123]

Does company have a redundancy policy? If so, what does it state about selection.

May not be applicable to you but maybe for those other projects client approvals may be needed to change of personnel. So not as statught forward as swapping our one person as another.

I work in oil and gas industry and in my company selection is done on performance basis. One of our competitors in same field does selection based on project end dates.. So seems its legal to do it based on position rather than person.