Consultation Period / Redundancy Advice

Consultation Period / Redundancy Advice

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johnnywb

Original Poster:

1,631 posts

223 months

Tuesday 21st April 2009
quotequote all
Hi all.

My girlfriend has been called into a 'Department Strategy Meeting' tomorrow morning, at which she believes they will be told they are going into a period of consulation. Her department head has been having meetings with the HR Director and Heads of other departments within their group company.

She also feels that he Head of Department dislikes her. There have been numberous incidents over the last 3 years where she has been made to feel small, stupid etc. Over the last few weeks she has had little to do and has been explaining she has capacity to take on more, but has had very little given to her.

My girlfriend is a graduate within the team. There is one other graduate two middle managers (one is useless) and three directors. She qualifies in Jan, and no grads have been made redundant yet or even been in perods of consultation, but clearly that makes no odds.

What i'm looking for is some advice to give to her if she enters into a period of consultation. What should she be doing (and not doing)? What should the company be doing? ALso, how can she protect herself against this (apparent) issue with her boss?

Many thanks for any replies.

edc

9,435 posts

266 months

Tuesday 21st April 2009
quotequote all
johnnywb said:
Hi all.

My girlfriend has been called into a 'Department Strategy Meeting' tomorrow morning, at which she believes they will be told they are going into a period of consulation. Her department head has been having meetings with the HR Director and Heads of other departments within their group company.

She also feels that he Head of Department dislikes her. There have been numberous incidents over the last 3 years where she has been made to feel small, stupid etc. Over the last few weeks she has had little to do and has been explaining she has capacity to take on more, but has had very little given to her.

My girlfriend is a graduate within the team. There is one other graduate two middle managers (one is useless) and three directors. She qualifies in Jan, and no grads have been made redundant yet or even been in perods of consultation, but clearly that makes no odds.

What i'm looking for is some advice to give to her if she enters into a period of consultation. What should she be doing (and not doing)? What should the company be doing? ALso, how can she protect herself against this (apparent) issue with her boss?

Many thanks for any replies.
If she/team are put at risk of redundancy then for the employees it is business as usual. During the consultation you can ask questions about when/where/how/why etc. If role is confirmed as redundant (all of them or some by selection process), then you will be looking at potential volunteers and redeploying into other roles.

With regards the 'issue', what is there to protect against? If there is a genuine problem which has not been resolved then be pro-active and resolve it, either informally, or if desired via the company grievance procedure. Graduate, manager or whatever, job title doesn't matter.

It is easy to imply that since your other half as a graduate has had little to do that graduate level work has dried up ...

johnnywb

Original Poster:

1,631 posts

223 months

Tuesday 28th April 2009
quotequote all
All,

further to this, she has now been placed on consulation, along with three other from her department, with the information she has been given indicating that they are looking to lose two people.

She has until tomorrow to make a counter proposal etc. Her team is part of a bigger planning department, but each team is it's own P&L. She has suggested offering to move between teams to help manages costs etc and workload. For those in the know (HR / previous experience), would this be sensible or would it jepordise her position?

ridds

8,330 posts

259 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
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In all honesty I'd tell her tio give up and start looking elsewhere.

They'll have already made up their minds who's going.

edc

9,435 posts

266 months

Wednesday 29th April 2009
quotequote all
You need to know the rationale for losing 2 people. If it is a cost reduction exercise then redeploying and moving the cost somewhere else might not be a go-er. By all means make as many proposals as you want but a proposal is only any good if it solves a problem and if you don't know what the problem is then ...